In the latest move to tranquilise Australia’s interstate war over water, a new investigative body is being established to police the Murray-Darling Basin. Will a water cop finally help restore trust between water management agencies, states and farmers?
The basin, which covers a seventh of the land in this country and provides for around 40% of agricultural production, has been mired in controversy following water theft allegations, maladministration with the federal Murray-Darling Basin Authority, and misconduct allegations concerning a senior water bureaucrat in NSW.
They all had one job — to help manage the water under the bipartisan, $13 billion Murray Darling Basin Plan signed off by the Gillard government in 2012. Seven years later and things are not swimming along so well, which is why there’s a new Sherlock Holmes in town.
Minister for Agriculture David Littleproud announced there would be an inspector-general put in place to investigate state and federal water agencies.
What does this mean?
The inspector-general would have heightened powers to access agency information and be able to compel people to give evidence.
Crikey understands that interim inspector-general will be former Australian Federal Police commissioner and current northern basin commissioner Mick Keelty. The oversight body, which will cross jurisdictions, will have 10 staff across two offices — north of the basin and south of the basin.
Keelty recently told The Saturday Paper that the river basin was “ripe for corruption” and was already looking into cases of agricultural water licences buybacks.
Even though Littleproud is emphasising restoring trust between states, the royal commission into the Murray-Darling found that there has been maladministration amongst Commonwealth officials, ignoring reforms it could have implemented to look after the basin. States are disgruntled about how the river basin is managed federally, particularly since fish began dying in record numbers. Further, farmers have claimed that when Barnaby Joyce was agriculture minister he was pushing the federal Murray-Darling Basin Authority in the direction of irrigators’ interests.
It is understood that the inspector-general will be an overarching role that will oversee agencies already on the ground, rather than being on the ground itself. They will have the power to investigate claims of water theft, for example, and the power to refer them on criminal matters to state integrity commissions and police.
The inspector-general will also have to front senate estimates, which could help with greater public accountability. The intention is to make the role a permanent fixture.
How do farmers feel about it?
The National Farmers’ Federation is bracing itself for a meeting with Littleproud on Sunday August 4 to seek assurances.
In a press release, the federation’s chief executive Tony Mahar did not explicitly welcome the new position but said they would be watching “closely” to ensure the role would be “complementary to that of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and is of value to farmers, communities and the environment”.
“The meeting needs to: respond to the productivity commission’s five-year review of the plan; take action on improving water deliverability; progress sustainable diversion limit adjustment measures; and reinforce their commitment to basin communities,” Maher said.
“Will an inspector-general fix the Murray-Darling mess?”
[Is that rhetorical?
a) A brain fart from the Member for Cubbie Station????
b) A member of the federal government that refused leave for their public servants to appear before the SA M-DBA Royal Commission to give evidence? …………….]
Answer : Remember Michaelia Cash’s white board?
Mick Keelty?
a) “Howard’s lap-dog” – that Honest John had neutered, after Mick barked out loud about Australia being at greater risk from Muslim terrorists after we (led by Honest John) joined Tony & W invading Iraq?
b) Who then went on to harry Mohamed Haneef and latched onto his unprotected ankles – at Ghoulie Andrews’ and Honest John’s insistance – whose government needed a “terrorist distraction” from dreadful polls, months before losing government in a Ruddslide?
c) Who also did a bit of “excuse” work for one-termer Qld Limited News Party Premier Cando Newman – so that Cando could play around with Qld emergency services and cut public servant numbers – to save money?
That “Mick Keelty” is going to be this “inspector general”?
Did you see that around half of cubbie station is being sold at least seven years after its sale to Chinese interests on the condition that they only owned half of it? That took a bit of enforcing.
Nope. There is one cure. No irrigation from the Barwon unless it is flowing significantly and no off river storage.
Biggest user of water on the Barwon. The wrecker Corrigan. A corruption inquiry is needed when water released on one Corrigon ‘farm’ is released at huge cost to us and way above the regular price, only to be caught and used by his properties down stream. ICAC is urgently needed to stop these water thieves/traders from destroying the bush, the rivers, the small farmers, and ultimately us.
Short answer, no. This is a stalling tactic and like trying to fight a wildfire with a garden hose. The way water and land is used and managed has to be revolutionised. The Nationals and their enablers simply don’t have the capacity for this. Nature will bring the reckoning sooner rather than later and it won’t be pretty for any of us.
The bottom line is that during a time of severe drought, the Agri-Socialist party want water to be taken out of the river and given to Farmers. When the rubber hits the road the Coalition will opt to further destroy the environment in the cause of short term profit for cotton farmers. Until this basic philosophical approach is advertised to the public and we have a debate on which cause, cotton or water flow has primacy, then a watch dog is of no use.
But Keelty….of the AFP!
First we took water management out of the hands of the Murray-Darling States because they mismanaged it. Now the body set up to overcome maladministration is charged with maladministration and needs yet another overseer. Has anybody in power pondered whether there might be some more fundamental reform required to our public administration? Such as by nourishing the States’ capacity to manage natural resources in the public interest? Or by conceding that artificially constructed devices like trading credits can’t adequately mediate complex social and environmental systems by themselves?
ICAC. Only solution.