Govt to re-examine its list of farmers who offered to sell water

The Albanese government's plan to buy back almost 50 gigalitres of water - which will be targeted at across seven catchments - was made public by department officials under questions during a Senate estimate.

Despite the previous government's promise not to buy back water, it is understood the Commonwealth kept a list of people who had offered to sell their water entitlements.

READ MORE: Govt to buyback 50GL of water across these 7 catchments

Water Minister Tanya Plibersek said the government would examine water buyback opportunities in areas "where we can have low-impact and good value for taxpayer dollars".

"I can tell you, we've had a number of unsolicited approaches already," Ms Plibersek said,

"We're looking at those proposals at the moment and we'll go through a very methodical approach where we'll look at people who have come to us unsolicited.

"We'll also talk to irrigators more generally. If there are unproductive areas of irrigation networks that irrigators want to close down or retire, we'll look at proposals like that."

NSW Farmers conservation and resource management committee chair Louise Burge said the decision, which was kept secret until revealed by The Land, was "outrageous" and demanded answers about the timing of the purchases and what impact they would have on communities.

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"This is pure politics, and it's irresponsible given the situation our communities are in at the moment," Ms Burge said.

"Communities have been warning governments of all persuasions about the impact of this relentless pursuit of water buybacks for 12 years now, because we have seen firsthand that they devastate towns and reduce food and fibre production.

"This decision will further cut the amount of food farmers can grow at a time when families are dealing with rising food prices, it's just outrageous."

The buybacks will be focused on the seven catchments that have fall short of their Bridging The Gap target, including Condamine-Balonne (14GL), NSW Murray (10GL), Namoi (9.5GL), NSW Border Rivers (5.1GL), ACT (4.9GL), Barwon-Darling (1.6GL) and Lachlan (0.9GL).

The Condomine Alluvium will also have 3.2GL of groundwater bought.

Ms Plibersek reiterated infrastructure options would also be used to meet the MDBP targets.