Federal, NSW, Victorian, Queensland, ACT and South Australian ministers agree to an inspector general who ‘can investigate allegations of water theft’

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Water ministers have unanimously agreed to an independent umpire to police the Murray Darling Basin plan.

The federal water minister, David Littleproud, sought approval for a Murray-Darling Basin inspector general to be established when he met water ministers from New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and the ACT for talks on Sunday afternoon.

“The inspector general will be a tough, but fair cop to oversee all state and federal agencies delivering the basin plan,” Littleproud said in a statement.

“They will make sure all agencies live up to their responsibilities and can investigate allegations of water theft.”

The inspector general will report to water ministers every six months and will appear at Senate estimates hearings. The inspector general will be a cabinet appointment.

“The goodwill taken to create this position reassures me that this new role will help to rebuild trust between the states,” Littleproud said. “It will also give basin communities greater confidence the plan is being rolled out fairly.”

The Murray-Darling Basin plan was agreed to in 2012.

Littleproud said legislation to create the new statutory role would pass parliament next year and said in the mean time northern basin commissioner Mick Keelty would become the interim inspector-general. Keelty will serve for three years.



Keelty said it was “a unique opportunity to put some confidence back in the plan”.

“I think this is a very positive step in the right direction,” he told reporters in Canberra.

The meeting on Sunday afternoon also discussed 38 recommendations of a productivity commission report as well a series of mass fish deaths at Menindee, in the far west of NSW, over summer.

Fresh calls for inquiry into Murray-Darling Basin plan Read more

Ahead of the meeting, NSW and South Australia were at loggerheads.

The NSW water minister, Melinda Pavey, cast doubt on whether it was achievable to have a target of 450 gigalitres for environmental flows, and hinted it should be abandoned.

“If this target cannot be achieved, this needs to be recognised now and our efforts re-prioritised,” she told the Australian.

Her South Australian counterpart, David Speirs, was adamant the target must go ahead.

“Whilst the plan is not perfect, it is the only plan we have got, and for it not to be delivered would be the worst result for South Australians and the basin as a whole,” he said.

Littleproud said the meeting had struck an agreement on a neutrality test for the 450 gigalitre environmental flow target which he characterised as “akin to getting peace in the Middle East”.

“We’ve done a lot, let’s not kick ourselves,” he told reporters.

NSW and Victoria had devised the measure.

“There is no megalitre of water that can be taken off a farm that will give a detrimental impact on a social, economic term, either at a farm gate or regional [community],” Littleproud said.

Victoria and NSW expressed a desire to review some of the modelling and assumptions regarding constraints to delivering higher environmental flows in the basin. This late bid failed to receive support from South Australia, the commonwealth, Queensland or the ACT.





