Xenophon's Bill 'a threat to Murray-Darling Basin’s future'

28/08/2008 6:44:00 PM

Council chief executive officer Andrew Gregson is appalled by the Bill.

“Senator Xenophon, in a grab for attention, is threatening to destroy enormous amounts of work by the states, the Commonwealth, environmental and irrigator groups to bring about the Basin Authority and a national approach to management of the resource," he says.

“By proposing a bill that is beyond the Constitutional powers of the Commonwealth and that precludes the MDB Ministerial Council, Senator Xenophon threatens to undo the work furthered by the IGA.

“It’s foolhardy and should be rejected out of hand."

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Comments

Date: Newest first | Oldest first

What has the basin authority got to hide ? If nothing then let the independant audit go ahead so everyone knows how much water really is in private and government storage basin wide - obviously there must be something different to what was publicly declared previously or there would be no objection by them !

Posted by Andrew on 29/08/2008 7:24:13 AM

It might be worth the Feds listening to Nick - he's done a lot of work and consulted widely on the MDB and knows his stuff. Listen and learn!

Posted by GT on 29/08/2008 7:38:53 AM

Andrew, the problem is that there is no such Authority yet & won't be until early next year. What Senator X is proposing is to cobble it together in an attempt to address an emergency in his state. What he does not consider in his Private Members Bill is the impacts on any other states. If successful, he will be a headline in SA & responsible for corrupting an already rushed Basin planning process. This is a seperate issue from the audit, that is already going ahead.

GT - he may know his SA stuff, but he has very limited knowledge of anything outside SA, as far as the river is concerned.

Posted by trev on 29/08/2008 11:06:32 AM

Is the Murray darling Basin working? The state of the system suggests a Royal Commission (one with real teeth) might be timely.

Meanwhile, the independent audit must go ahead and the Commowealth override the States to release an environmental flow.

Posted by liz on 29/08/2008 11:14:28 AM

Sounds like the Murray Darling Basin Ministrial Council is a toothless tiger.

They make a lot of noise about what they are supposedly doing and then when someone else comes to their den, they turn out to be nothing but a big pussy cat.

Get in there and fight, Nick, for the truth, which the people of Australia have a right to know about.

Posted by The Water Drop on 29/08/2008 11:55:56 AM

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