Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I suspect that answers my question. You mentioned the $10 billion package and the money for overallocation. In a briefing I did raise again—and heaven forbid that I should have something in common with Senator Heffernan, but it is an issue that he has raised on many occasions—the issue of the MISs, and I have also raised it here on previous occasions. As we are told, there are a number of larger corporations that hold a significant amount of water that they have bought up through MIS investment. How is the government planning to deal with big entities that hold large amounts of water? If what the people in the water market tell me is true, they have already distorted the water market by buying those large allocations. These big entities or corporations may not now want to go ahead with their MIS investment because the rules have changed. Has the government given consideration to how they are going to deal with that major amount of water that is on the market through the big corporations? I am told that they have got a lot of water that they have bought from farmers and that they may be looking to offload that.