Penny Wong’s and Labor’s protection of Angus Taylor and Barnaby Joyce and the failed $13 billion Murray-Darling Basin Plan

Penny Wong and the Labor Party started the Water buyback scheme which has been rorted, by the likes of Angus Taylor and Barnaby Joyce for $80 million, in 2008 when Senator Penny Wong was the Minister for Climate Change and Water.

We all know the saying, “The standard you walk past is the standard you accept”, and as we all know the Labor Party has been happy to walk past all the corruption under the previous Liberal / National Party coalition government by setting up the fake National Anti-Corruption Commission.

This article will focus on the water fraud and theft cover-up and is a follow-up to my last article (29/6/25) titled “National Leader David Littleproud’s relative John Norman jailed over $20 million water fraud” and video (1/7/25) titled “NACC’s failure to charge Angus Taylor and Barnaby Joyce for the $80 million Watergate fraud“.

As you will see in the video below, Senator Penny Wong grilled a newly appointed department head, and public servant, in October 2020 over the corrupt $30 million Western Sydney airport land deal in effect demanding the public servant take responsibility for exposing and correcting the past corruption.

If Labor’s Senator Penny Wong expects newly appointed public servants to take responsibility for exposing and correcting past government corruption, then voters should expect Penny Wong and the Labor Party to take responsibility for exposing and correcting past government corruption.

Senator Penny Wong and the start of Water buybacks in 2008

2008 – Senator Penny Wong, who is currently the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the Government in the Senate, was Minister for Climate Change and Water from 3/12/2007 to 8/3/2010 and started the Murray–Darling Basin water buyback scheme.

There were some rumblings under Penny Wong’s watch as per the below cartoon by Peter Nicholson in 2008 titled “Penny Wong purchases cheap water rights”. (Click here to see the cartoon on his website)

Some articles from the time questioned the buyback scheme and how well it was being managed by Penny Wong and the government were:

In August 2008 the SMH published an article titled, “Govt defends $350m Qld water buyback” which starts off:

A $350 million water buyback in Queensland is part of the federal government’s plan to improve flows in the Murray-Darling Basin, Water and Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says.

The announcement follows reports $50 million spent earlier this year to secure 35 billion litres of water entitlements will return just 10 megalitres, the equivalent of 10 swimming pools, to the river system. (Click here to read more)

The AFR published an article in March 2010 titled “Penny’s from heaven for water sellers” which starts off:

For the Kahlbetzer family there will only ever be one Penny Wong. When the federal Water Minister needed a big deal to trumpet the government’s commitment to the Murray-Darling Basin, the family’s Twynam Pastoral Company was a willing seller.

What followed was the largest ­water trade in Australian history, a $303 million deal that was supposedly a win for taxpayers and the ­environment.

But an analysis by The Australian Financial Review shows the federal government paid at least a $40 million premium for the Twynam water licences. And it was not just the billionaire family and its patriarch, John ­Dieter Kahlbetzer, who benefited from this taxpayer-funded water boom.

Irrigators across the Murray-Darling Basin experienced a huge lift in prices last year when the government entered the market through its $3.1 billion buyback program. (Click here to read more)

2012 – And in 2012 under the federal Labor government, “The introduction of the Murray–Darling Basin Plan in 2012 was a recognition that past attempts to share the water had not worked. A new whole-of-Basin approach was needed to manage the Basin’s water resources in the national interest, including to meet Australia’s international obligations.” (Click here to read more)

In 2017 Four Corners broadcast the story, “Pumped: Who is benefitting?”

“People are profiteering… It’s the biggest water grab in Australia’s history.” Grazier

In Australia’s most important river system, the water is so precious, it could be liquid gold.

“People want to get water in their hands because if you get water in your hands that’s big money.” Grazier

Stretching from Queensland to South Australia, billions of dollars in tax payers’ money has been poured into rescuing the rivers and streams of the Murray-Darling Basin to save it from environmental collapse.

But nearly five years on from a landmark agreement to restore the river, something is wrong.

“We all hoped because of the state of the Murray-Darling Basin that the basin plan would essentially take this patient, which was essentially in the intensive care unit, out of the intensive care unit and be able to make it walk again. But essentially the basin plan is not working the way it was meant to work.” Ecologist (Click here to read more or watch the Four Corners video)

In 2019 the $80 million Cayman Island fraud and theft by federal MP’s Angus Taylor and Barnaby Joyce was exposed in the media which is outlined in the below video I published on the 1st of July 2025 titled “NACC’s failure to charge Angus Taylor and Barnaby Joyce for the $80 million Watergate fraud”.

In 2021 Penny Wong published a video on her YouTube Channel titled “The Morrison Government can’t be trusted to deliver the Murray-Darling Basin Plan” where Penny Wong ripped into the then Scott Morrison federal government over their management of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

2024 – The Conversation published an article in December 2024 titled, “A $13 billion, 30-year flop: landmark study reveals stark failure to halt Murray-Darling River decline”, which says:

Some A$13 billion in taxpayer dollars and 30 years of policy reform have failed to arrest the devastating decline in the health of Australia’s most important river system, the Murray-Darling Basin, new research shows.

The four-year study released today involved 12 scientists from Australia’s leading universities, and draws on data from 1980 to 2023. It is the most comprehensive report card to date on government policies to protect the Murray-Darling.

We found expensive and contentious reforms, including the once-vaunted Murray-Darling Basin Plan, have mostly failed to improve outcomes for people and nature along the river system.

The result is deeply alarming for a natural asset so fundamental to Australia’s environmental, cultural and economic wellbeing. 

The Murray-Darling river system starts in southern Queensland, winds through New South Wales and Victoria and reaches the sea near Adelaide in South Australia.

Historically, state governments have allowed too much water to be taken from the system, primarily to irrigate crops. This has caused extensive environmental damage such as toxic blue-green algae blooms, dramatic falls in bird and fish populations and undrinkable town water supplies, to name just a few.

and:

In 2023, the federal Labor government enacted the “Restoring Our Rivers” laws, to increase the return of water to the environment. This was a very important step, but there’s a long way to go.

The Murray-Darling Basin Plan is due for review in 2026. Clearly, monitoring to date has been inadequate (Click here to read more)

The federal government also set up the National Anti-Corruption Commission in 2023 which has been a total failure so I have no confidence in the “Restoring Our Rivers” laws they enacted in 2023.

Over the last 18 years during the course of the water buyback scheme Labor and the coalition have shared power for 9 years each, Labor 2007 until 2013 and 2022 until the present and the Liberal Party and National Party coalition 2013 until 2022, so one party cannot blame the other for the cover-up of the corruption and failings of the Murray–Darling Basin Plan.

Both Labor and the Liberal Party and National Party coalition have had the opportunity to fix the problems but have failed.

What the above shows is that Murray–Darling Basin Plan is a mess and the $billions spent on the water buyback scheme is money down the drain.

While the government is reviewing the Murray–Darling Basin Plan you must ask why isn’t the government reviewing the $billions wasted on the water buyback scheme and investigating the fraud and theft.

While people like Barnaby Joyce and Angus Taylor committed the $80 million Watergate fraud it is Penny Wong and Labor who have driven the getaway car, with the fake National Anti-Corruption Commission, and allowed them to get away with it.

I have also published a video of the above article on the Kangaroo Court of Australia YouTube channel – Click here to watch.