A lucrative water extraction licence that ignited a political scandal when it was granted a decade ago has been quietly renewed under the government that condemned it last time.
The licence for 5,800 megalitres a year sparked controversy when it was awarded under the Country Liberal Party government to former station owner Tina MacFarlane in 2013, the same year she ran for federal parliament with the party.
She went on to sell the station in the outback town of Mataranka to a forestry company, which used the property to grow Indian sandalwood trees, for a reported $5.5 million.
The full licence for the property was quietly renewed for another decade under the Territory Labor government at the beginning of this year.
In the Northern Territory, the government's water controller — within the environment department — approves and renews water license applications.
In what environmentalists have called a case of history repeating, the rural property is now on the market once more, with real estate material spruiking a "blue-ribbon irrigation development" with six bores.
It is expected to fetch about $9 million if it sells.
The Mataranka licence was granted free of charge and will automatically transfer to whoever buys the property, the NT's water department confirmed.
While the ABC is not suggesting any impropriety, environmentalists say the saga is another example of the Northern Territory's "fundamentally broken" water rules.
"What we're talking about is a transfer of public resources to private interests with no return to the territory taxpayer — and that is a huge problem," Kirsty Howey from the Environment Centre NT said.
The licence granted to Mrs MacFarlane in 2013 — which was more than double most others in the Mataranka region at the time — was among those scrutinised in an independent water licensing review initiated after Territory Labor formed government in 2016.
While the review found no evidence of political interference in the allocation of Mrs MacFarlane's licence, the review concluded that the licence allocated more water than the political candidate would have been able to use at the time.
Mrs MacFarlane has always denied she sold the property in 2015 because the licence increased its value.
Only 60 per cent of licence used
Sandalwood company Quintis, which took over the station in 2015, applied for a licence renewal in June last year as the expiry of the previous 10-year licence approached.
The NT government has now confirmed the company was not using its full water allocation at the time, with just 60 per cent of its allocation exhausted in a recent 12-month period.
Despite that, the licence — which remains the region's largest — was renewed in full in January.
"The fact that it has been granted for that exact same amount again, despite the fact that the full amount hasn't been used, is problematic and is inconsistent with the recommendations of the licensing review and also with water policy in the territory," Ms Howey said.
However, the company itself said it applied for a full renewal "well prior" to a decision to sell the property because of an under-performing crop.
"As trees grow they require more water," a company spokesperson said.
"So while 60 per cent of the allocation was used last year, the 2021 licence application was predicated on the fact that when the trees mature 100 per cent of the allocation will be required."
Several concerned community members objected to the previous 2013 licence being granted, according to department records, some because of the amount of water being allocated and the property's proximity to Elsey National Park.
