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Request for audit
Further allegations concerning procurement of water entitlements in the Murray-Darling Basin
Response provided
Responded: Friday 14 February 2020
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The Auditor-General responded on 14 February 2020 to correspondence from Senator Sarah Hanson-Young dated 20 January 2020, requesting that the Auditor-General investigate allegations concerning procurement of water entitlements in the Murray-Darling Basin.
Auditor-General's response
14 February 2020
Senator Hanson-Young
Australian Greens’ Senator for South Australia
By email: Senator.Hanson-Young@aph.gov.au
Dear Senator Hanson-Young
Thank you for your further request of 20 January 2020 regarding research conducted by The Australia Institute and the sale of overland-flow water rights in the Condamine Balonne catchment and your request that these be considered as part of the ANAO’s current audit into the Procurement of Strategic Water Entitlements.
As noted in my correspondence to Minister Littleproud on 29 April 2019 at https://www.anao.gov.au/work/request/audit-purchases-environmental-water-the-commonwealth-and-behalf-the-commonwealth the ANAO audit into strategic water entitlements is examining the design of the current policy framework for water buy-backs and whether its implementation has been effective. The audit will examine offers accepted by the Commonwealth, including the sale in the Condamine-Balonne catchment. As I also advised Minister Littleproud, the audit will not cover the period from 2008 in detail as this earlier period related to a previous iteration of the policy which is outside the scope of the audit.
The criteria for this audit are listed at https://www.anao.gov.au/work/performance-audit/procurement-strategic-water-entitlements.
We anticipate tabling the current report in May 2020.
Yours sincerely
Grant Hehir
Auditor-General
Correspondence from Senator Sarah Hanson-Young
(Note: the enclosure to which Senator Hanson-Young refers is a research publication from The Australia Institute titled Rough estimates: Analysis of Senate Estimates documents on Australia’s most controversial water.)
Mr Grant Hehir
Auditor-General
Australian National Audit Office
Barton ACT 2600
By email: grant.hehir@anao.gov.au
20 January 2020
Dear Auditor-General
Further allegations concerning procurement of water entitlements in the Murray-Darling Basin
I write in relation to further analysis by The Australia Institute (enclosed) and various media reports today concerning the $80 million sale of overland-flow water rights in the Condamine Balonne catchment. This in addition to my previous correspondence to you, along with my previous calls for further scrutiny on this matter.
I understand that the ANAO is currently conducting an audit on the issue (the Procurement of Strategic Water Entitlements audit) as a result of the consistent concerns and lack of resolution and transparency in relation to this long-running issue concerning Minister Angus Taylor.
While this work is currently underway, I believe that it is important to draw your attention to the very serious concerns raised in this research report, including the repeated refusals by the Federal Government to release independent valuations of the water rights purchase. That the Commonwealth had previously rejected multiple offers from Eastern Australia Agriculture (EAA), of which Minister Taylor was a Director prior to entering Parliament, because the deal was deemed insufficient to meet the Government’s own guidelines for determining value-for-money, draws further concerns still as to the opaque nature of this transaction.
Accordingly, I ask you to investigate these allegations and in particular, the issues raised through The Australia Institute’s report as part of the ANAO’s Procurement of Strategic Water Entitlements audit, with a view to examining Ministerial accountability and the mechanisms for ensuring transparency in particular.
Yours sincerely
Senator Sarah Hanson-Young
Australian Greens’ Spokesperson for Water & Murray-Darling Basin
(Note: the enclosure to which Senator Hanson-Young refers is a research publication from The Australia Institute titled Rough estimates: Analysis of Senate Estimates documents on Australia’s most controversial water.)