Poll shows Mayo voters want a federal royal commission into the Murray-Darling Basin

An overwhelming majority of voters in a key South Australian electorate say a federal royal commission into the Murray-Darling Basin is required, putting the issue front and centre for the remainder of the election campaign.

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An overwhelming majority of voters in a key South Australian electorate say a federal royal commission into the Murray-Darling Basin is required, putting the issue front and centre for the remainder of the election campaign.

The poll comes as Centre Alliance – expected to play a key crossbench role in the next parliament – unveils plans to force a referendum on whether the Commonwealth should take over Australia’s largest river system from the states.

An exclusive Advertiser/YouGov Galaxy poll has found 77 per cent of voters in Mayo are in favour of a royal commission. Only 8 per cent of voters in the seat, where Liberal candidate Georgina Downer is seeking to topple Centre Alliance’s Rebekha Sharkie, oppose a royal commission.

The results of the survey.

An emphatic majority of Centre Alliance supporters, 90 per cent, are in favour of a royal commission, in line with the party they support.

A majority of Liberal supporters also back a royal commission despite the Coalition arguing one is not needed.

Labor also doesn’t support a royal commission into the management of the river system, which has been dogged by concerns over mismanagement, political interference and questionable water buyback deals.

Labor has vowed to undo a deal signed between the basin states.

Centre Alliance Senator Rex Patrick and Senate candidate Skye Kakoschke-Moore will today release plans to introduce legislation to amend the Constitution to hand the Commonwealth Parliament clear authority to manage Australia’s largest river system.

“The water resources of the Murray-Darling Basin and the Great Artesian Basin are of tremendous national importance and must be managed in the national interest,” Senator Patrick said. “We currently have different water rules in each state, different compliance measures in each state, different governments distributing money for different elements of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, different accountability measures and general opaqueness in the execution and oversight of the plan caused by its multi-jurisdictional nature.”

Ms Kakoschke-Moore, who is expected to be in a three-way-tussle with Greens and One Nation for one of the two final senate spots in SA said the failure of federal and state governments to make a substantive response to the recommendations of SA’s Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission has “made clear the absolute bankruptcy of the current management” of Australia’s most important river system. “Effective national action has been stymied and sidetracked by parochial and vested interests,” she said. “Our rivers are dying while our federal political system is gridlocked.”

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Labor will this week target Boothby MP Nicolle Flint in a series of social media videos as they are confident voters back Labor over the Liberals on the Murray. “Our research clearly shows that the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is a key issue for voters in Boothby,” a Labor Party strategist said.

“We’ll be reminding Boothby voters that Nicolle Flint stood by and did nothing while the Murray has been attacked by upstream interests.”

Pastoralist Rob McBride, from Tolarno Station on the Lower Darling River, has endorsed Ms Flint’s political opponent, Labor’s Nadia Clancy, in a video that will be released on social media this week.

An exclusive Advertiser/YouGov Galaxy poll has found 77 per cent of voters in Mayo are in favour of a royal commission. Picture: Ben Goode

Coalition campaign spokesman, SA senator Simon Birmingham, said: “The Howard government established the Water Act that set in law the development of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

“Labor’s attempt to politicise the bipartisan support for the Plan is a shameful act, while their policies will only heighten the risk of upstream states walking away altogether, which would leave SA with no Plan and no guarantees for the future.”

Former Liberal Cabinet minister Amanda Vanstone last month said, in an episode of The Advertiser’s Off The Record podcast, a national royal commission should be held into Australia’s water system to examine issues including unchecked pumping by New South Wales irrigators.