Murray Darling Agreement Still Leaking

Thursday, 5th April, 2007  - Richard Farmer 
The spur of the moment decision by Prime Minister John Howard to try and take over management of the Murray Darling River system is looking more and more like one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time. At the moment the Victorian Government is still refusing to agree to the Howard plan that was developed without even going to Cabinet and the Secretary of the Treasury, Ken Henry, according to this morning’s Australian Financial Review, has given a scathing assessment of the Howard government's recent water and climate-change policies.
Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull is the man with the difficult task of rescuing what his leader planned as a key plank in his efforts to establish the environmental credentials of his Coalition Government. Yesterday Mr Turnbull was down by the river in Victoria trying to persuade irrigation farmers to back the $10 billion Commonwealth plan but, as the Age reported, he was having some difficulty. The Victorian Farmers Federation told him it wanted a written guarantee that Victorian irrigators would maintain their existing water entitlements and property rights and a written guarantee that bulk water entitlements — legal agreements that divide the water in the Murray-Darling Basin between environmental, agricultural and urban users — would not be reviewed until 2020, as enshrined in state law.
Until the VFF is satisfied, the Victorian Premier Steve Bracks is not inclined to join his fellow Labor Premiers from NSW, Queensland and South Australia and give the Commonwealth the powers it is asking for. Federation president Simon Ramsay is in no hurry saying that "the view by industry is that there is some urgency for the Prime Minister to get all the states signed up. I've said to Malcolm (Turnbull) we won't be pushed into trying to meet their election deadline merely to satisfy the PM."
Nor will the Treasury Secretary be as acquiescent as Mr Turnbull might like. Ken Henry was reported as telling an internal department forum back on 14 March that there is a "greater than usual risk of the development of policy proposals that are, frankly bad" ahead of the federal poll with the Murray Darling proposal being an example. Mr Turnbull this morning tried to defend the lack of Treasury involvement in the plan by saying information had to be gathered from people on the ground. "The Treasury does not know how much it costs to pipe a channel, how much it costs to replace a Dethridge wheel with a computerised flume gate, and how much it costs to line 10 kilometres of leaky pipe along the Murrumbidgee River," he told ABC radio.
Unfortunately for Mr Turnbull and Mr Howard, what the Treasury does know is nonsense when they read about it after a decision has been made. The Ken Henry assessment will just make the Victorian Government more determined than ever to hold out for a sensible solution.

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