Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, Minister Canavan. Minister, yesterday Fairfax reported the former water minister Barnaby Joyce approved the taxpayer-funded purchase of water from one of Australia's biggest cotton producers, Eastern Australia Agriculture, at a price well above what the seller was asking—a whopping 25 per cent more. In a separate incident, in October 2017 it was reported that, when considering a buyback from cotton producer Webster Limited for a property in western New South Wales, the former water minister ignored the department's own valuation and paid nearly double what the water was worth. Why is it, Minister, that every time the Nationals get their hands on the water portfolio rich cotton producers get richer and every other taxpayer gets ripped off and the river suffers?