Former agriculture minister says he has ‘no problems whatsoever’ with unredacted documents about transaction being released

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Barnaby Joyce has attempted to pin blame for a controversial $80m water buyback on the Queensland Labor government in a belligerent marathon interview.

Speaking to Radio National’s Patricia Karvelas on Monday evening, Joyce brushed off threats of a royal commission into the issue, arguing it would have to examine the previous federal Labor government and the state government, for recommending water buybacks from Eastern Australia Agriculture (EAA).

But Joyce repeatedly stonewalled questions about the beneficiaries of the transaction and whether they were linked to the energy minister, Angus Taylor, claiming he wouldn’t have known Taylor “if he stood up in my Corn Flakes” and as minister he had no role to inquire about who benefited.

Calls mount for royal commission into controversial Murray-Darling water buybacks Read more

The Senate crossbench including the Greens and Centre Alliance have called for a royal commission into why the federal government bought water back off EAA, the parent company of which was domiciled in the Cayman Islands at the time.

Labor has not ruled out a royal commission, increasing pressure on the Coalition and former water and agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce.

Joyce said the buyback was “negotiated at arm’s length” and he did not set the price or vendor.

Joyce said that Labor had “bought $300m worth of water of a business based in Argentina” and questioned whether there are “certain countries and people we don’t buy water off”.

“These were the people offering water to us to buy … there were no other companies offering us water to buy.”

Joyce said at least six times that Labor and the shadow environment minister, Tony Burke, had “bought water off the same people” and the Queensland Labor government had recommended it.

“Why did the Queensland government recommend this to us? Are they morons? Were they asleep?”

Guardian Australia has seen correspondence to Joyce dated November 2015 in which the Queensland resources minister, Anthony Lynham, recommends the “potential purchase” of properties from EAA to make up a shortfall of water in the Condamine-Balonne catchment.

The letter refers to “previous discussions” between the Queensland and federal governments about potential purchase of EAA enterprises, which Lynham said would minimise the impact of buybacks on small family-owned irrigators.

Joyce said he “didn’t give a toss” about appearing at a royal commission, which he said would have to examine Burke, Labor’s leader in the Senate, Penny Wong, and Lynham.

Joyce said the questions around the buybacks were “a load of horse crap” and he had “no problems whatsoever” with unredacted documents about the transaction being released.

Joyce dodged questions about who profited from the transaction by responding: “Do you take them into the confessional or do you want the water?”

Joyce said the minister “does not ask that question – you ask whether they’ve got water to sell”.

“You don’t ask what clothes they wear, who they’re married to, you ask if they have water to sell.”

Joyce said the legislation required the government to buy water, not ask questions about the beneficiaries of the transaction, and queried why the state government had not made the same inquiries.

“The Queensland Labor government – Labor, Labor, Labor, Labor government, who recommended this to us – are you saying they are incompetent and didn’t know what they were doing?”

As the interview became increasingly combative, Joyce suggested that it was “your” Labor and Greens parties which had demanded more environmental water, pulling himself up as he noted he was not sure who Karvelas voted for.

Coalition faces calls for inquiry into Murray-Darling deals signed by Barnaby Joyce Read more

Asked why the value of the water suddenly doubled in the year before the sale, Joyce said he had inquired to valuers “vastly more competent than me” whether it was a fair price and he “imagined” it had increased “because others wouldn’t sell it to us cheaper”.

Asked whether associates of anyone in the government had benefited, Joyce demanded Karvelas rephrase the question. Joyce said he didn’t know Taylor before he entered parliament.

“Certainly at this point in time my knowledge about any association of Angus Taylor – going to be a future minister – was … zero. Zero.”

Joyce said he believed there was “absolutely nothing untoward” about the actions of Taylor, who was an early director of EAA.

Taylor’s office has repeatedly stated that he has never had a direct or indirect financial interest in EAA or any associated company, and “concluded all association with EAA and related companies prior to entering the parliament”. Taylor’s office also says he had no knowledge of the federal government’s water buyback from EAA until after it occurred, and Taylor received no benefit from the transaction.

Under Labor, and during the first years of the Coalition government, water for the environment under the Murray-Darling basin plan was either compulsorily acquired from farmers or it was purchased through an open tender process.

This process changed when Joyce became minister. In 2015 the Abbott government legislated a cap on water buybacks of 1,500 GL and Joyce announced he would no longer hold tenders or compulsorily acquire water because of what he said was the damage the program was doing to farming communities.

Instead, the government appears to have implemented a process of only buying water from willing sellers. The criteria for these purchases has never come to light, despite efforts by the Senate to get to the bottom of the sales.