This is a panicky government that is unable to perform the most basic task of selling of its policies. As a consequence, any chance of meaningful reform to end the over-allocation of the Murray-Darling Basin is unlikely.
Andrew Robb called it correctly during the election campaign, even if he was scoring a political point. This Government panics at the slightest pushback. Thus its sudden announcement yesterday of a parliamentary inquiry into the impacts of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, coming as a few hotheads carry on like buffoons at the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s consultation meetings.
Bear in mind that the Government doesn’t have a single seat affected by this, with the possible exception of Bendigo, which contains part of the Campaspe River. But clearly the Government has been rattled by Simon Birmingham’s canny demands for Tony Burke to participate in the consultations. Tony Burke shouldn’t be participating in the MDBA consultations — it’s an independent authority preparing advise to the Parliament — but the Government appears incapable of getting that message across.
Incidentally, it’s peculiar that the Opposition’s water spokesman Barnaby Joyce chose to be out of the country (he’s in Rome for the MacKillop theatricals) at the most important moment in the water debate in this country in recent years, but Birmingham has made sure Joyce hasn’t been missed.
The time for the Government to announce the Parliamentary inquiry was last week, before the release of the draft plan guide by the authority. But much more should have been done beforehand. In effect, the Government has allowed the MDBA to throw a solution out for debate without defining the problem. This is a consistent feature of Labor in Government, its failure to provide a basic narrative for its policies, which appear in the public space without any attempt to prepare voters by explaining what the problem is that the policy is designed to address.
It happened repeatedly under Kevin Rudd and it is happening under Julia Gillard. The Government should have been articulating the problems of unsustainable water allocation in the MDB — not just for the environment, but for communities downstream. This would have provided context for the MDBA guide.
None of this is particularly difficult. The magnitude of the cuts to water allocations needed to ensure the sustainability of the MDB — at least 30% — have been known for a long time. The National Water Commission was discussing those figures last year. That irrigators and irrigated agriculture communities would be unhappy was predictable. But the Government is scrambling with process theatrics after the explosion of anger has occurred.
There’s no reason to think the Government’s handling of the Basin Plan will be any different to the way it handled the RSPT, or for that matter the CPRS — although at least it followed a process in developing the latter that allowed the nature of the problem to be articulated, via the Garnaut Report, before launching its response. The Government is open to a scare campaign on fresh food prices — far more so than the nonsensical line run by the Coalition on the mining tax – and the opportunities for backsliding are legion.
Labor’s only hope is that South Australian Liberals exercise enough sway in the Coalition to prevent the entire debate from being overtly politicised.
The only sensible thing about the parliamentary inquiry is the selection of the chair. Co-opting Tony Windsor might appear to hand inordinate power to an MP aligned with the interests of irrigators and regional towns, but when chairing inquiries into issues of deep interest to them, MPs tend to become much more careful and moderate in the positions they take.
Otherwise, it looks like the same sort of reactive fix that characterised much of the Rudd Government’s response when faced with vocal opposition to its other policies. It’s clear now that this wasn’t so much Kevin Rudd’s management style as Labor’s management style — and specifically NSW Labor’s style, which has survived into the era of a Victorian Labor PM. And it bodes poorly for the Prime Minister’s commitment to “walking the reform road every day.”
Reforming governments have to sell reform effectively, they have to convince voters of the merits of their case by establishing why there is a need for reform, and then showing what they intend to do about it. That’s doubly the case when confronted with a political opponent who is reflexively oppositional.
There’s a broader point here about simple political skills. Labor seems entirely ineffectual in basic political communication. Tony Abbott has delivered the Government shed loads of material to nail him as an unprincipled opportunist who routinely and repeatedly reverses his positions on critical national interest issues like climate change and our role in Afghanistan. At no point has Labor even looked like doing so. It is a key reason why Labor finds itself in minority government.
There’s no reason to think this will change. This mob looks on course to repeat all the mistakes of the Rudd years.
The reason the Govt has been suprised by reaction on the CPRS, the RSPT and the now the MDBA is that they thought in each case that everyone agreed with there position. Most informed rational people agree that en ETS is the right way to go on climate change (even Greg Hunt in his private moments), that the big miners should pay more tax (even the miners) and that we need to manage water better in the Murray Darling basin (even the majority of farmers). so when a minority of rat bags (generally the National party) make a noise that is amplified by the Murdoch press to sound like the majority view the Govt is suprised and reacts hastily even though they should be getting used to it by now.
I also think it is absoultely no coincidence that Barnaby has been sent off to the other side of the world during this debate.
‘a few hotheads carry on like buffoons’ is a bit rich wouldn’t you think? These are the people who will be losing their jobs and livelihoods because of this cut… They are probably lucky this is all that’s happened so far. Country Victorians have every right to be pissed off, state government pumping water from Eildon, federal cutting irrigation… oh wait, both are Labor government’s..
Bernard, ask yourself where the electorates of Fraser and Canberra are on the map of Australia, and then perhaps revisit the canard about the Government not having a seat affected.
As irritating as the lazy references to “Plan” that should be “Guide” in much of the media on this.
What crap. A few lousy farmers whining and the media have beat it up into a major drama. The government did not back down on reforming the pension system during the GFC, they have stuck to the BER in spite of the OO’s constant lies and whining, Rudd did the apology in spite of protests and hate, refugees are not being sent home in spite of the hate and whining.
It’s the media looking for hysteria that are geeing things up. I mean, I just looked at those morons who survived 10 years of drought by sticking their noses in the public trough over and over again rather than reform anything and laughed at the hysterical ramblings of city based journos. without a clue.
Shades of Farenheit 451, did the idiots think that burning a few reports would affect anything much?
How many of the reporters in this country know for example that the so called efficient lot in SA steal more water than anyone else and they irrigate in the frigging rain.
Funny too how this pack of idiots didn’t give a toss about the mining towns who shut up shop when BHP and RIO can’t make enough money.
And I note that moron Greg Hunt is still demanding that Garrett be sacked even though he has been cleared twice and while the auditor is whining about “remediation” there is no evidence that it is in fact required as all the frigging houses are still standing.
The problem with our media is well known but this afternoon the WT described our soldiers being in Afghanistan as “aid” – we only give $123 million in “aid” to feed Afghans, and $1 billion for bombs and bullets to shoot them with.
And $144 million to build Curtin to jail 600 Afghans without charge or trial based on the lie of less acceptances – by my calculations the cost of this lunacy and abuse of Afghans has seen about 10 Afghans actually rejected out of the first 1900 cases.
And why is the minister for Cubby station allowed to be shadow anything? He grew up in Tamworth and got his accountancy degree in Sydney.
spot on shepardmarilyn on all counts, the ignorant abusive and entitled rabble at griffith would have had socrates drinking hemlock if he’d been there.