Mick Keelty provided five recommendations in a report including more investigations into the northern basin and the impact it has on water sharing.
Mr Keelty visited different towns in the southern basin impacted by the MDBP, including Shepparton in March, after the Federal Government appointed him for the investigation on the back of the Convoy to Canberra in December.
The recommendations are:
● Recommendation 1: The Murray-Darling Basin Authority should undertake further analysis of the causes of reduced inflows from the northern basin and the extent to which this is affecting state water shares.
● Recommendation 2: To increase trust in and transparency about water-sharing, the MDBA should provide clear and easily accessible information about Special Accounting measures, including the circumstances under which they are applied and how they are used to determine state allocations.
● Recommendation 3: The MDBA should clearly communicate the results of its examination of under-use of allocations and compare them with the submissions made to this inquiry so that accurate feedback can be provided to the community.
● Recommendation 4: The Basin Officials Committee should consider implementing a single authoritative platform that combines information currently available on the various Commonwealth and state websites, to provide higher levels of transparency and trust and to improve water literacy.
● Recommendation 5: The BOC should consider ways through which states and agencies could work together across their respective jurisdictions to include water literacy in high school and higher education curriculums, including Vocational Education and Training, in regional areas.
Member for Nicholls Damian Drum said the government was accepting the recommendations and would attempt to fulfill them immediately.
“It is obviously a problem when someone as capable as Mick Keelty can spend four to five months investigating the flow regime within the lower basin, and one of his major recommendations is a call for more data, more transparency, and more accountability,” Mr Drum said.
Although stopping short of shifting all responsibility from the Federal Government, Mr Drum said farmers and irrigator frustration needed to turn their attention towards their state governments.
“I think it's the first report that has clearly stipulated the state responsibility versus that of the Federal Government,” Mr Drum said.
“Whilst I'm always happy to meet with irrigators, always happy to have conversations, arguments and debates about water policy, it is amazing how many people expect the Federal Government to fix up what is ultimately a state government issue.
“This report again highlights the fact that the states are in control of their own water, they allocate it in a way they see fit and changes to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan can only ever take place if the states are in full agreeance.
“I think it's simply a matter of the states having to put their hands up.”
Mr Drum said the states must have a better understanding of their people, communication skills and transparency.
State Member for Shepparton Suzanna Sheed said southern basin farmers would be disappointed with the recommendations.
“On the Convoy to Canberra in December there was a feeling that Mr Keelty's job was to some way find water for them.
“There can be only disappointment from those who went to Canberra.”
Federal Water Minister Keith Pitt said Mr Keelty's report was one of three that would "guide" government policies around the managing the basin.
“The others are the Sefton Report into socio-economic circumstances among basin communities and the ACCC inquiry into the water market,” Mr Pitt said.
14°C