I’m writing from Goondiwindi, a town that sits along the Macintyre River, at the top of the Murray-Darling Basin, right on the border of NSW and Queensland. The stomping ground of David Littleproud, the Federal Water Minister. This is cotton country.

Two farming executives are currently facing criminal charges for defrauding the Commonwealth. They are before the courts in Queensland for allegedly submitting fraudulent claims and falsifying invoices related to water efficiency projects that never eventuated, to the tune of $20 million. Meanwhile, infrastructure works paid for by Australian taxpayers are keeping overland flows on their land.

A kangaroo stuck in the drying mud in the drainage canal of Lake Cawndilla, one of the four lakes of the Menindee Lakes. Credit:Nick Moir

The practice of overland harvesting is rife; keeping water that should be flowing into rivers on farm. Corporate irrigators and their advocates often cite their low "take" from the river while they harvest this water free of charge, billing the taxpayer for the infrastructure works (otherwise known as dam walls, below ground channels, raising roads) that capture and store the water for their own private and corporate use.

While some farmers in the basin have zero water allocated from the river, that doesn’t stop them harvesting overland water. Meanwhile, corporate cotton crops in southern Queensland are flourishing. One cotton crop I visited this week will use 3.6 gigalitres of water by the time it is harvested, while the environment goes without.