And today there are newspaper reports that in this year, when most water entitlements have been severely cut due to the drought, just 10ML of actual water will be returned to the environment.
“All the $50 million has bought is a promise in the future of water, it has bought air space, it will not put any water in the Murray River at this time,” Opposition water spokesman John Cobb said on radio this morning.
“When you speak to those who have been charged with buying the water they concede there was no plan, they just bought the cheapest water they could, which was buying air space in dams, it did not actually buy water at this time.”
The Department of Water’s report into the water buyback shows that the Government bought only the cheapest licences on offer (see graph).
However, it also shows that about 25pc of the licences purchased by the Government were high-security licences.
The departmental report shows the Government paid an average of $2124/ML for high security water and $1131/ML for NSW general security and Victorian low reliability licences.