Former AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty appointed interim Inspector-General for the Murray-Darling Basin
The Murray-Darling Basin finally has its own chief investigator tasked with upholding the plan’s integrity. But the signatories have not yet declared agreement on how to deliver flows.
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Former Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty has been appointed “the tough cop on the beat” tasked with overseeing the integrity of the plan underpinning protection of the Murray Darling Basin.
But the states signed up to the plan walked out of a special meeting in Canberra yesterday without announcing whether they had reached agreement on how to deliver environmental water flows for the river.
In a move welcomed by the South Australian Government, Mr Keelty has been appointed the interim Inspector-General for the Murray Darling Basin as part of a move aimed at cleaning up rorting and corruption by upstream irrigators.
The former top cop, who has been investigating practices in the Northern Basin, said he did not believe there was widespread corruption affecting the plan.
But he also said “nothing surprises you in the corruption game”.
“People are motivated by greed ... and water is the value of gold,” he said.
“Water is an attractive investment for institutional investors right around the world.”
But it was revealed NSW and Victoria had decided to go alone on a peer review of constraints – challenges to deliver the environmental water flows.
Mr Keelty will be the interim inspector-general until Federal Parliament passes legislation to create the role.
The “tough cop” will have the power to investigate suspected water theft, as well as ensure that efficiency and recovery projects are delivered across the river system.
Last night, an official communique from the meeting was not forthcoming. It is instead expected to be released this morning.
However, Federal Minister for Water Resources David Littleproud did hint at some disagreements between states.
“We got agreement from the states today that we continue to work toward the plan put in place in 2012,” he said. “There are some issues we still have to work through.
“But we have also done a hell of a lot of heavy lifting. We have done a lot ... but we have a lot of work to do because there are some consequences about how we deliver this plan.”
Mr Littleproud said it was important the plan was delivered with minimal impact to farmers.
Ahead of the meeting, NSW and SA were at loggerheads over 450 gigalitres of water designated as environmental water in the southern basin. NSW’s Water Minister Melinda Pavey said the long-running plan may not be achievable, sparking a firm response from SA counterpart, David Spiers, who said the plan had to be delivered in full.