The
ABC Four Corners program “Pumped” which was screened on 24th July
has illustrated how important scrutiny of the establishment is to the rule of
law in our democracy. It also illustrates why the ABC is under threat from many
politicians and other powerful players who see any effective scrutiny of their
operations as an intolerable threat to their way of doing business, a way that
is against both the general community interest as well as the national
interest.
The
outrage from the revelations of water theft and other illegality by big
irrigators in the northern NSW area of the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) has
increased over the days since the program was screened. Politicians have
been left scrambling and forced to change tack following the strength of the
reaction and the condemnation of the inadequacy of their initial responses.
In
NSW the Nationals Minister for Primary Industry, Niall Blair, was forced to
change from an internal inquiry conducted by his department to an independent
inquiry. Blair was excessively optimistic in thinking that such an
internal inquiry would be acceptable given that Four Corners had revealed a
questionable relationship between Gavin Hanlon[1],
his department’s Deputy Director General (Water), and big irrigators in the upper
MDB. In addition there was the important question of why the department
had failed to act on departmental compliance officers’ reports of licence
breaches and meter tampering. And there were questions about the role of the
former water minister Kevin Humphries in dealing with the large irrigators.
The
NSW Opposition has also taken action referring both the former Nationals water
minister Kevin Humphries (Member for Barwon) and a senior bureaucrat
(presumably Gavin Hanlon) to ICAC.
The
Federal Government reaction was initially almost dismissive. The Minister
for Water Resources, Nationals Leader Barnaby Joyce[2],
as well as attempting to downplay the water theft by comparing it to cattle
rustling, claimed that it was a matter for NSW and that there was no need for
Federal Government involvement. Billions of dollars of taxpayer funds have been
used to buy back water for environmental flows and instead of being used for
this purpose this water has gone to the big irrigators in the upper
Barwon-Darling. Presumably the taxpayer funds had come from the Federal
Government. This would surely make it a matter of very great interest to this
government which, seeing it is so concerned about budget repair, would surely
be appalled at the waste of billions of taxpayer dollars.
Joyce’s
totally inadequate initial response was compounded shortly afterwards with what
he said in a speech to irrigators in a hotel at Shepparton, a speech which was
recorded by one of those attending.
Joyce said,
"We have taken water, put it back into agriculture, so we could look after
you and make sure we don't have the greenies running the show basically sending
you out the back door, and that was a hard ask.”
"A
couple of nights ago on Four Corners, you know what that's all about? It's about
them trying to take more water off you, trying to create a calamity. A calamity
for which the solution is to take more water off you, shut more of your towns
down."
Even
a dinosaur like Barnaby Joyce should have been aware that anyone carrying a
smartphone has the capacity to secretly record what others are saying. In
the political sphere we have seen how damaging this can be in the cases of
Christopher Pyne and One Nation’s James Ashby. The Shepparton recording has
certainly damaged Joyce and has added volume to the calls for him to be sacked
from the Water portfolio. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to happen as
the Prime Minister has enough problems in his own party without alienating
Joyce and the Nationals.
By
Sunday 30th the scandal became a matter that the Federal Government
had to act upon despite Joyce’s earlier labelling it a state matter. The
Federal solution was for the Murray Darling Basin Authority to carry out an
independent basin-wide review into compliance with state-based regulations governing
water use. The Authority is to report by 15th December 2017.
The Government saw this review as complementing the other investigations of the
Four Corners allegations.
However,
this is a case of far too little too late. The MDB Authority is scarcely
a body able to conduct an independent review of what has obviously been
happening under its watch. Furthermore a cynic would see the reporting
date of 15th December, just before the Christmas holiday season, as
a typical government move to ensure that the review report would receive
minimal attention and be forgotten about over the holiday break.
The
Federal Opposition, like its NSW state counterpart, has also taken action on
the scandal. It requested that the Auditor-General expand his current
audit of the Federal Department of Agriculture and Water Resources. The
Auditor-General will now include how the federal department is monitoring the
performance of NSW under the National Partnership Agreement on Implementing
Water Reform in the MDB relevant to the protection and use of environmental
water.
Unsurprisingly,
the South Australian Government, which has long been concerned about the lack
of water reaching the end of the Murray-Darling system, was outraged by the
allegations. It is calling for a judicial inquiry, a much stronger
investigation than those arranged by NSW and the Federal Government. SA
senators from Labor, the Greens, the Nick Xenophon Party and the Conservatives
have joined their state government in calling for a judicial inquiry.
This
scandal has a long way to run yet. There are major questions to be
answered about the National Party – both state and federally - and its
relationship with the big irrigators and its apparent indifference to the needs
of other irrigators further down the system. There is also the question
of its influence on the workings of the NSW Department of
Agriculture. And just what role has it had in limiting the
effectiveness of – perhaps even of sabotaging - the Murray Darling Basin Plan?
For
both Federal and NSW state Liberal leaders there is the question about the
advisability of having resource management portfolios in the hands of Nationals
and of putting both Agriculture and Water in the same portfolio. Each of
these governments has a very poor environmental record. What has been
happening on the Barwon-Darling reinforces the view that keeping “in good” with
the Nationals is far more important for the Liberals than ensuring that
environmental policies are in the best long-term interests of the state and nation.
[1] Gavin Hanlon joined
the NSW Department of Primary Industries in December 2014. Prior to this
he had been Managing Director of Goulburn Murray Water since 2011.
[2] The water portfolio
was removed from the Environment Department and allocated to Joyce as a result
of the agreement with the Liberals in 2015 following Malcolm
Turnbull becoming Prime Minister.
Hildegard
Northern
Rivers
2nd
August 2017
Guest Speak is a North
Coast Voices segment allowing serious or satirical comment
from NSW Northern Rivers residents. Email northcoastvoices at gmail dot com dot
au to submit comment for consideration.
