Sheradyn Holderhead: Jay Weatherill’s fight for Murray River water will dominate the public’s perception

PREMIER Jay Weatherill has made the State v Commonwealth contest an art form and the fight over the River Murray his crowning glory. Now on the doorstep of the state election, he’s been gifted a rematch, Sheradyn Holderhead writes.

SOUTH Australians love a fight and as self-styled underdogs we are particularly fond of any David and Goliath battle.

So when the opportunity arises for SA to take on those scumbags in Canberra we will take it through to the final round. Premier Jay Weatherill has made the State v Commonwealth contest an art form and the fight over the River Murray his crowning glory.

Now on the doorstep of the state election, Mr Weatherill has been gifted a rematch.

Since allegations of water theft in NSW were exposed in July, the Weatherill Labor Government has kept upping the pressure on the Federal Government.

The Coalition refused to conduct a judicial inquiry into the claims and, while it may have legitimately believed such a process was unnecessary, there was strong political blow back in SA, capped off when Mr Weatherill announced a royal commission.

Since allegations of Murray water theft in NSW were exposed in July, the Weatherill Labor Government has kept upping the pressure on the Federal Government.

On November 14 Assistant Water Minister and South Australian Senator Anne Ruston tabled an amendment to the plan to reduce the water recovery target in the northern basin from 390 GL to 320 GL. That was about two weeks before the Queensland election and the move gave irrigators in southern Queensland seats held by the Liberal National Party more water.

In fairness, the change was recommended by the Murray Darling Basin Authority after an independent assessment found the same benefit to the environment could be achieved with less water. But what it also did was start the clock ticking on any action which could be taken in the Senate to block the move. That clock eventually ran out at 7.20pm on Wednesday night.

These events, coupled with the dismissive attitude of water ministers in the eastern states toward the plan, brought South Australians from across the political divide together.

State Labor, the Greens, Nick Xenophon Team and Australian Conservatives decided there should be no changes to the basin plan until there were better processes in place to ensure all states were complying with their obligations.

SA Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young gave notice to the Senate she wanted to overturn the Turnbull Government’s change to the basin plan and a vote was listed for February 14.

This meant there had to be a vote on the decision to cut 70 GL. Without a vote the change was automatically disallowed. Tick, tick, tick went the clock.

NSW and Victoria warned failure to allow the change would force them to pull out of the plan.

Senator Ruston likened the move to putting a gun to those states’ heads.

Federal Labor, playing politics, took time to show its hand to put off the decision on how the party would vote until last week.

It was, however, pretty clear that without new commitments on compliance the party would vote down the change.

In the hours before the vote the SA Senators went into damage control and threw everything on the table to get Labor on side.

But it was too late because for SA Labor the politics were too good.

SA Water Minister Ian Hunter was able to declare: “This is South Australia standing up for the part of the deal that it took us to sign on to the 2012 agreement.”

But now that historic agreement is hanging on by a thread. NSW and Victoria are known to have been looking for a reason to get out and this decision gave them one.

While South Australians have the most to lose from the plan falling apart, if history is any indication the public perception will likely be that Mr Weatherill is fighting for SA while the Liberals have done little to pull the evil east into line.

This is Federal Parliament, not the public service. If you can’t get the politics right, the detail of the policy doesn’t matter.

Now the Liberals are in damage control, worried about the impact it will have on their state colleagues.

They’re left trying to win the argument by explaining the specifics of an incredibly complex policy.

Definitely not ideal with four weeks left until the state election on March 17.