“The independent senator Rex Patrick has called for the resignation of the bureaucrat in charge of the federal government’s $250m program of water buybacks after it was revealed the department of agriculture may have misinterpreted a valuation and paid $13m too much for one purchase.
Labor has also demanded an explanation from the government over the $80m purchase of water from Eastern Australia Agriculture (EAA), labelling it a scandal and a waste of taxpayers’ money.
“Scott Morrison needs to step up and he needs to explain what he’s going to do to make sure that Australians get value for money,” Labor’s water spokesperson, Terri Butler, told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.
“The government has managed to spend an extra $13m on these water entitlements. They paid the $80m to Eastern Australia Agriculture. This is a company that has previously been linked to Angus Taylor.””
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Davis, Anna. The Guardian 17 March 2021.