MURRAY Irrigation chairman Stewart Ellis, who is waiting for a $50 million water-trading deal to be sealed, says the deadlock on embargoed NSW water trades could open the floodgates to mortgagee-in-possession sales.
He said many farmers were desperate to sell water because of hardship and if deals didn't go through, it would leave them unstuck, according to a report in The Australian Financial Review.
"It's something governments must get their heads around and resolve," he said. As of May 29, the NSW government said it would no longer process permanent water trades when the entitlement was being bought for the environment.
Before the restriction was announced, NSW's largest private water holder, John Dieter Kahlbetzer's Twynam Agriculture, sold $303 million of entitlements to the federal government in a deal that marked the single largest purchase of water in Australia's history.
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