Water Minister Ian Hunter’s tirade leaves River Murray adrift

THE hard-fought victory to secure extra water for the River Murray must not be imperilled by petulant and boorish behaviour.

THE hard-fought victory to secure extra water for the River Murray must not be imperilled by petulant and boorish behaviour.

For years, South Australian political leaders of all persuasions have had to throw their weight around in the shared interest of securing the river’s future.

But Mr Hunter perhaps should have read a copy of Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People before launching a foul-mouthed tirade at Victorian Water Minister Lisa Neville and Acting PM Barnaby Joyce.

Mr Joyce, a knockabout character who grew up on a NSW cattle and sheep property, would have heard far worse in the family shearing shed. But, in a maxim quoted by Carnegie, “a drop of honey can catch more flies than a gallon of gall”.

Mr Hunter’s tirade has become the issue, overshadowing his argument of yesterday morning that Mr Joyce was trying to tear apart the historic agreement, spearheaded by The Advertiser’s “I Love Murray” campaign to save the river. “Mr Joyce has his eye on $1.77 billion dollars allocated to buy 450GL for the ... Murray’s environmental health — and he’s not going to get it,” Mr Hunter declared ahead of yesterday’s Murray Darling Basin Ministerial Council meeting in Adelaide.

“We saw what happened in the millennium drought. It’s beyond shameful that upstream politicians would even consider consigning South Australians to the same fate in the future by sentencing the mighty Murray to a certain, slow death.”

Powerful words and not without some foundation, evidenced by support from the Australian Conservation Foundation. But Mr Hunter has opened up an escape clause for Mr Joyce, who says the extra water cannot be delivered “without hurting people”. A senior federal Liberal emphasised the 2012 plan, forged by then prime minister Julia Gillard, legally required no social or economic detriment when retrieving the water. This is now difficult, it is argued, given almost 2000GL has been returned to the river of the 2750GL surface water recovery target by 2019. The contentious 450GL by 2024 is in addition to this. With this in mind, Mr Hunter should have dispensed a drop more rhetorical honey.