THE final report from the SA Royal Commission into the implementation of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was handed to SA Governor Hieu Van Le this morning, days earlier than expected.
The report, compiled by commissioner Bret Walker with assistance from senior council Richard Beasley, was meant to be released to the state government on Friday, with it planned to be released publicly once “Cabinet has considered it”.
“The state government believes the MDB Plan Royal Commission report should be made available to the public at the earliest opportunity,” Attorney-General Vickie Chapman said. But no timeline was given.
Cabinet next meets on Thursday.
Controversy has plagued the process leading up to the release of the report, with federal bodies, such as the MDB Authority, the CSIRO and other Commonwealth bodies, not being forced to appear before the state-based commission.
The NSW, Vic and Qld governments also declined invitations to appear before the commission.
The inquiry’s consultation process wrapped up late last year, with more than 30 consultation hearings held and more than 150 submissions received from relevant stakeholders across the basin states.
Finniss farmer Elizabeth Tregenza, who spoke at the hearings and presented a submission on behalf of the River, Lakes and Coorong Action Group, said report findings discussed so far had been concerning, such as alleged breaches of the Water Act 2007.
“The fish kills that have been ongoing for the past eight weeks also show that the MDB system has been driven to the point of a national disaster caused by greed and politics,” she said.
Ms Tregenza stressed the importance of the report being released immediately to the public.
“A Royal Commission is significant, it’s disappointing it’s not a federal inquiry, but perhaps hopefully that may be an outcome of this,” she said.
“There is some fundamental problems with the plan that need to be addressed, including the fact that they settled on a high risk, low levels Sustainable Diversion Limit, and they recently reduced that even further because of politics.
“I think people have really had enough.”
The SA Dairyfarmers’ Association also put in a submission, but had concerns the inquiry focused too much on the environment and not enough on the triple bottom line.
“We fronted to commission to say it was always the intent of the legislation to consider the triple bottom line, basin communities and its economy should be equally important considerations in the plan,” SADA chief executive officer Andrew Curtis said.
“But it was made abundantly clear the commission believed it was a heirarchy, which placed the environment at the top.
“And any arguments putting the environment first were not going to get much support.
“In the final summary, Mr Beasley went as far as using the term ‘nauseating’ for anyone that believed there should be a marriage between the environment, society and the economy.
“That’s offensive to people that live and work in basin communities – to have their livelihoods dismissed as ‘nauseating’.
“It’s one thing to be dismissive, but calling us nauseating is a bridge too far.”