Breaking: Morrison government orders probe into water buybacks in wake of Joyce controversy | nicole_hasham
The Morrison governemnt has asked the Auditor-General to examine a decade’s worth of water buybacks amid sustained pressure on the Coalition over a $79 million deal with a Cayman Islands-linked company.
Agriculture Minister David Littleproud has requested the Auditor-General review "to make sure the community can continue to have confidence in the Murray-Darling Basin Plan", the morning after former water minister Barnaby Joyce said it "wasn't his job" to know who would benefit from buyback decisions.
The review would involve all water purchases since 2008, including under the former Labor government.Credit:The Morrison government and its bureaucrats are under the microscope over the 2015 purchase of water from two Queensland properties owned by Eastern Australia Agriculture. Such deals are a central features of the Murray Darling Basin Plan, which seeks to recover water from irrigators and return it to the environment.
Mr Littleproud said he has "confidence all things from all parties were done properly" in relation to the deal, and the review would "make sure all governments of all political persuasions since 2008 have done the right thing".
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