Not a drop of water after government spends $80m on rights from agribusiness

Commonwealth environmental water holder confirms rights from firm once linked to Angus Taylor yield no water

The federal government has received not a drop of water for the $80m it spent on buying water entitlements from Eastern Australia Agriculture in 2017, a company once linked to the energy minister, Angus Taylor.

Taylor was a director and co-founder of EAA, an agribusiness in Queensland, which was backed by a group of foreign investors. Taylor founded the Australian company in 2007 and served briefly as a director between 2008 and 2009, well before becoming an MP in 2013. His business partner, Tony Reid, was also a director and acted as a consultant on the controversial sale of overland flow entitlements to the government.