Murray authority interfering with science, whistleblower says

SCIENTISTS were bullied into suppressing information about the plan to save the Murray, a whistleblower says.

• No ‘Plan B’ for Murray, Minister says
• Experts say plan set to fail
• Warnings Plan on bring of collapse

SCIENTISTS were bullied into suppressing information about the plan to save the Murray, a whistleblower says.

Dr Matthew Colloff retired from the CSIRO in 2016 and is now an honorary lecturer at the Australian National University. He worked closely with the Murray-Darling Basin Authority on the MDB Plan.

In a submission to the State Government Royal Commission into the Murray he writes that the CSIRO was undermined and unduly influenced by the Authority and removed information from a report after the Authority said it “didn’t compare favourably with their own modelling”.

He said it was clear the Authority wanted to reduce the amount of water to be delivered to the environment and that their modelling procedure was “opaque, to say the least”.

In the end the Plan aimed for 2750 gigalitres in the first set of savings, with another 450GL to come later. Various experts said it should be at least 4000GL.

“I was unhappy with the extent of MDBA’s interference throughout the course of the project,” Dr Colloff writes.

“In particular, with the way that I felt our scientific integrity was being compromised and independence undermined. We were being managed by CSIRO staff and MDBA in such a way that our job became effectively a rubber stamping of the MDBA’s findings.”

He said a table showing whether or not ecological targets could be met was removed from a report.

“In a more general sense and throughout the project, we received an awful lot of direction about what to and not to include in the report,” he said.

Last week The Advertiser revealed that another whistleblower, former MDBA director of environmental water planning David Bell, says he was given just half an hour to come up with the amount of water needed to save the Murray — he came up with between 4000 and 4500GL — that CSIRO later research backed.

But then there was a “shift in thinking” that the number had to start with a “2”, he said.

Dr Colloff will give evidence to the Commission tomorrow, as will Peter Collier, the director of the Wentworth Group of scientists.

In his submission Mr Collier said his involvement in the Plan was dependent on it sticking to the best possible science, which showed that there needed to be between about 4000GL and 7000GL returned to the river system.

He became worried that the Commonwealth was aiming for a lower amount, and said it became obvious the science wasn’t going to be respected, so he resigned.

The Commission is locked in a legal battle with the Commonwealth over whether or not a state inquiry has the power to compel federal employees to give evidence.

The Authority declined to comment.