On 1 June 2017 former NSW Minister for Natural Resources, Lands and Water (23 April 2014 - 2 April 2015) and current Nationals MP for Barwon, Kevin Humphries, announced that he will retire at the next state election in March 2019.
In the wake of the 24 July ABC “Four Corners” revelations of large-scale water theft under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, Humphries has been referred to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) by the Labor Opposition.
Hot on the heels of this program came another announcement on 31 July 2017.
Former NSW Minister for Primary Industries (3 April 2011 - 2 April 2015) with responsibility for lands & water and current Nationals MP for Cootamundra, Katrina Hodgkinson, announced her retirement effective mid to late August 2017.
Hodgkinson denies any connection between her sudden retirement and those Four Corners revelations.
However it should be noted that it was on the joint watch of Humphries and Hodgkinson that the position of NSW Water Commissioner responsible for the overall management of the State’s surface water and groundwater resources was axed and the NSW Office of Water was reformed as part of the Dept. of Primary Industry maintaining overall responsibility for accepting and assessing applications to change water access licences and operating the Water Access Licence Register.
High volume water theft appears to have become easier on the watch of these two National Party politicians.
All that would be needed for a trifecta of retiring state politicians associated with water resource policy would be for the current NSW Minister for Primary Industry, Minister for Regional Water and Nationals MLC, Niall Blair, to announce an unexpected desire to spend more time with his family and pursue other interests.
Any further scandal surrounding the management water resources in the NSW section of the Murray-Darling Basin and this may well be a distinct possibility - or even more media coverage like this perhaps?
The Daily Telegraph, 2 August 2017:
The Daily Telegraph, 2 August 2017:
A NATIONALS minister is
pushing Cabinet colleagues to change irrigation laws to retrospectively justify
a decision by his department to give a major political donor and cotton farmer
more rights over the precious Barwon-Darling River.
The Daily Telegraph can
reveal that Primary
Industries Minister Niall Blair is behind a push to alter an element
of the Barwon-Darling Water Sharing Plan.
It comes after his
department in 2016 overruled what it called “minor” error in the law to grant
extra irrigation rights to Brewarrina cotton farmer Peter Harris.
A department briefing,
seen by The Daily Telegraph, said the error was impacting on “some users
wishing to trade between river sections covered by the plan”.
The briefing was written
shortly after Mr Harris was given extra rights.
Mr Harris gave $10,000
to the National Party prior to the 2011 election in combined personal donations
and those made by his company.
Its understood an
internal Coalition fight has broken out between Mr Blair and current Water
Minister Gabrielle Upton , who is resisting the changes. The revelations come as
several inquiries have been launched into the alleged water theft on an
industrial scale of precious resources across the basin…….
The Daily Telegraph has
obtained another document showing that the retiring Ms Hodgkinson changed the
water sharing plan to benefit irrigators after lobbying. She was water minister
at the time.
In a 2012 letter to
lobbyist and cotton farmer Ian Cole, Ms Hodgkinson wrote: “Following
consideration of a number of WSP (water sharing plan) matter raised with me, I requested
the Office of Water to make several amendments which I believe now present a
fair and equitable outcome for all.”
The Minister for the Environment and Liberal MP for Vaucluse Gabrielle Upton's obvious reluctance may be due to her appreciation of a change in wind direction within the national electorate on the subject of Murray-Darling Basin water allocations.
The present Deputy Prime Minister and Australian Water Minister, Barnaby Joyce, is also in a somewhat precarious position – less to do with his manifest inadequacy as a federal minister and more to do with his stated motives for seeking to add the water ministry to his portfolio responsibilities.
Cartoonist David Rowe at Financial Review
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