Murray-Darling takover may not be legal: Tony Windsor

We need to be sure that a transfer of control over the Murray-Darling water is constitutional, Independent MP Tony Windsor said today. The Commonwealth may well need a referendum before it takes control of the Murray-Darling. He says the details of the federal government’s plan to take over the Murray-Darling Basin must be made public and the basin’s communities and irrigators must be consulted. Mr Windsor issued a joint statement with another key Independent, Peter Andren. “All the negotiation around the Howard Government’s $10 billion water plan has involved federal and state leaders, ministers and bureaucrats with no sign that the communities and irrigators who rely on the Murray-Darling will get a say,” Mr Windsor said. “My independent colleague, Peter Andren and I are calling on the federal and state governments to make the draft legislation and explanatory documentation available to the public with a view to launching an extensive community consultation process. “If the Commonwealth government is going to take over control of the Murray-Darling, with the agreement of the States, once Victoria gets on board, there are questions that need to be answered. "Section 100 of the constitution states: The Commonwealth shall not, by any law or regulation of trade or commerce, abridge the right of a State or of the residents therein to the reasonable use of the waters of rivers for conservation or irrigation. “So ‘the residents’ of a State have the same rights as their state governments when it comes to the regulation of water,” Mr Windsor said. Mr Andren believes that there is also questions of:

• How much authority is actually to be handed over by the states.
• How duplication of roles may occur and therefore duplication of costs to the taxpayer.

Mr Andren asks, “What are the Commonwealth’s plans for the allocation of water to the towns, irrigators, and to environmental flows? "How can anyone accept the federal government’s proposal without this information? He concluded, “This takeover requires extensive consultation for all the so-called stake holders in the Murray-Darling basin before anything is decided and the federal government must make the details of its plan publicly available. “The people of the basin must be confident that the Commonwealth is not just creating another layer of bureaucracy and that there will be sufficient checks and balances in place against the misuse of our precious water resources,” Mr Andren said. SOURCE: Breaking national news from Rural Press weekly agricultural papers, 24 July 2007 updated daily on FarmOnline.