Cash Splash: Taxpayer dollars, secretive deals and the lucrative business of water | Four Corners

Four Corners reveals the results of its latest investigation into how billions of taxpayers’ dollars are being spent on the plan to rescue the Murray-Darling Basin and whether the contentious plan has become a colossal waste of money.

The river system is the lifeblood of Australian agriculture but right now it’s in crisis.

It’s experiencing one of the worst droughts on record, and with mass fish deaths capturing the headlines and farmers struggling to survive, many are saying the scheme is failing to deliver.

Billions of taxpayers’ dollars are being poured into grants handed to irrigators in an attempt to save more water.

We’ve discovered the big winner is big business.

Huge corporations, some of them partly foreign-owned, have received tens of millions of dollars to fund massive expansions and increase irrigation.

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This program features contributions from:

JULIE ANDREAZZA
Farmer

BRETT JONES
CEO, Murrumbidgee Irrigation

ANTHONY KIDMAN
Fmr Murrumbidgee Irrigation Project Manager

GLEN ANDREAZZA
Farmer

PROF. RICHARD KINGSFORD
Ecologist, UNSW

DAVID PAPPS
Fmr Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder

RICHARD BEASLEY SC
Fmr Snr Counsel Assisting Royal Commission

PROF SARAH WHEELER
Water Economist, University of Adelaide

JOHN KERRIGAN
Earthmover

MARYANNE SLATTERY
Snr Water Researcher, Australia Institute

KELVIN BAXTER and GLEN BAXTER
Farmers

PROF QUENTIN GRAFTON
UNESCO Chair in Water Economics, ANU

PAUL PIEROTTI
Vice President Griffith Business Chamber

TONY ONLEY
Business Development Coordinator, Murrumbidgee Irrigation

EMMA CARMODY
Senior Solicitor, Environmental Defender’s Office

MATTHEW IRESON
Grazier

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