FROM THE DESK OF Roland Rocchiccioli – February 28, 2019

The Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission report said the controlling authority was “unwilling or incapable of acting lawfully”; and the plan’s original architects were driven by “politics rather than science.”

COMMISSIONER Bret Walker SC has found that Commonwealth officials committed gross maladministration, negligence, and unlawful actions in the drawing-up of the multi-billion-dollar deal to save Australia’s largest river system. His damning report should not be summarily dismissed, however tempting and politically expedient.

The Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission was empowered by the South Australia Government, after allegations, first aired on the ABC’s ‘Four Corners’ television programme, 2017, of water theft by NSW cotton farmers.

Justifiably, South Australians, perched at the bottom-end of the basin, were infuriated to discover billions of litres of water earmarked for the environment were being taken by NSW irrigators. South Australian Premier, Steven Marshall, described the report as “complex” and is requesting the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, to convene a meeting with the ACT’s Chief Minister and premiers of the basin states – Queensland, Victoria, and New South Wales.

Commissioner Walker recommended more water should be reallocated from irrigation to the environment; however, the Victorian Water Minister, Lisa Neville, disagreed. She said, “I think at this point to change the goal posts, to move away from this, would be in my view disastrous.” It is an appraisal which flies in the face of consensus, and, on closer scrutiny, is meaningless. Her mixed metaphors (one ‘moves’ the goal posts, and ‘changes’ horses in mid-stream) only serve to make her flippant assessment simplistic and trite. It was the same hubristic tone which led the Turnbull government to mistakenly oppose a banking royal commission. The former Prime Minster, Malcolm Turnbull, has since professed his ignorance of, and regret at, the magnitude of the problem. Did he truly believe the banks would sacrifice profit and self-regulate? The Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, voted against the proposed royal commission 26 times.

Secondly, it is questionable that Ms. Neville’s personal view is of interest, or consequence. Minster’s public utterances should reflect, always, and only, the view of the government. While it may be characterised as a slip-of-the-tongue, it is symptomatic of the divisive malaise affecting government; the cavalier attitude being one of ‘we know best about everything’. An electoral victory does not automatically constitute entitlement, on any account. Parties govern by the will of the people, a tenet which tends to be shunted in the afterglow of political success. Indubitably, there is a propensity for believing that one matters in the scheme of things, and is a by-product of the 24-hour news cycle; the electronic sewer which provides all-and-sundry with a megaphone and a platform, and so pollutes our lives with misinformation and disinformation.

Commissioner Walker made 111 findings, and 44 recommendations, calling for a complete overhaul of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, and reallocating more water from irrigation to the environment. He found the original plan ignored potentially “catastrophic” risks of climate change, which the authority has refuted. Not surprisingly, the other basin states, mindful of the potential impact and contending it was a state initiative and therefore not federally binding, have made clear their determination to trivialise and reject this significant report.

A royal commission is a powerful legal instrument for good, and one of countless benefits derived from the Crown.

Witnesses appear on summons, thereby guaranteeing them all the legal protections appertaining. Appointed commissioners take seriously their role. The blatant disrespect shown by the state governments of the ACT, Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria, to the findings and recommendations of South Australian Royal Commission is cause for profound reflection, and disquiet. The might of the inquiry, and its extraordinary capacity for good, is irreparably diminished by careless, cheap, political point-scoring.

It is a scientific fact: Australia is – apart from Antarctica – the driest continent in the world. Science tells us climate change is real. We have a responsibility to use water wisely. Remember the campaign? ‘Don’t be a Wally with water!’ Furthermore, we are all Australians. No-one state being more important, and while it may be a quaintly old-fashioned concept, politicians of all persuasion need to remember we are united under one flag, and responsible to, and for, each other. We are all we have in this global village.

Roland can be contacted via [email protected] and you can hear him every Monday morning at 10.30 on radio 3BA.