Former Liberal Cabinet minister Amanda Vanstone urges national water royal commission

Australia’s water system must be examined over issues, a former Liberal Cabinet minister says, as the buyback scandal continues to trouble the government.

• Explained: Watergate scandal swamps government

A national royal commission should be held into Australia’s water system to examine issues including unchecked pumping by New South Wales irrigators, says former Liberal Cabinet minister Amanda Vanstone.

In the latest episode of an Advertiser election podcast, Ms Vanstone said a national royal commission should focus on the Murray Darling Basin and the eastern seaboard.

The Federal Government has resisted calls for a national royal commission into the Murray Darling Basin, which intensified after former water minister Barnaby Joyce’s defence this week of a $79 million water buyback in 2017.

Ms Vanstone, a former South Australian senator and minister in John Howard’s Cabinet, conceded the buyback amount seemed “an extraordinary amount of money” but understood Mr Joyce acted upon his department’s advice.

“What I would be happy to see is a national royal commission into the water system in Australia completely,” said Ms Vanstone.

“It might be a lot of money in the buyback we’re talking about but it’s nothing compared to getting the water system for Australia right.

“In Victoria, I’m told by agricultural people that they’ll come and check your pumps and your meters and stuff quite regularly.

“It doesn’t happen in NSW. What the hell is going on when it’s not the same situation in each state, when you buy an amount of water that you’re allowed to use but nobody checks whether you take more? I mean, give me a break.

“I just think a national inquiry into the whole water system would be a good thing.”

A state royal commission, released in January, found the Murray Darling Basin Plan had been derailed by maladministration.

But Defence Minister Christopher Pyne, in last week’s Advertiser election podcast, said there was no need for more royal commissions or reviews into the Basin Plan, saying the focus should be on implementing it and ensuring upstream states did not have an excuse to walk away.

The auditor-general will review all taxpayer-funded water purchases since 2008.

Outgoing Labor MP for Adelaide Kate Ellis amplified Labor’s plan for an inquiry with royal commission powers into the buyback scandal.

“I think the issue is how do we prevent that (Murray Darling Basin) plan from being corrupted and actually trust the experts, trust the scientists who have gone through and who have advised governments on what we need to do and how much water we need to save to do it,” she told the podcast. “The problem is that vested interests keep getting in the way. Upstream states and state governments and politics comes into play.

“South Australians have to work double time to stand up to fight because we know that we see it first when this fails.”