THE South Australian Dairyfarmers Association has spoken out against a royal commission into the Murray Darling Basin Authority.
President John Hunt said it may look impressive on the surface to refer the causes of a breakdown in the Murray Darling arrangements to a South Australian Royal Commission for events that are effectively New South Wales based.
But he said it would “gag” the “robust advocacy” needed on behalf of South Australians.
“The Murray Darling authority has already reported the systems in Victoria and South Australia are robust enough to advance the needs of the scheme, but it is shortcomings particularly in New South Wales that is causing problems,” he said.
“The New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption is already investigating what is happening in that state.”
Mr Hunt said calling of a commission would stall progress.
“It is the nature of these commissions that all who are likely to be called as witnesses will take a position that will mean they will say nothing because the matter is before a commission,” he said.
“Minister Ian Hunter will be similarly hamstrung because if he makes any comment he will be asked why he is not waiting for the report of the commission.”
He said issues involving the Murray Darling agreement were already well known.
“The matters of alleged water theft are already under investigation, so there is no clear suggestion as to what the commission is going to report into,” he said.
Mr Hunt was also critical of the Liberal Party backing the commission.
“Surely they should have asked for more information before saying ‘me too’,” he said.
“By the time this commission reports ICAC and other investigative bodies will have long since done their work and South Australian representatives on both sides of politics will have silenced themselves during a time that we need their advocacy more than ever.”
