Steven Marshall backs Royal Commission into Murray River water theft

PREMIER Jay Weatherill’s plan for a royal commission into alleged Murray River water theft has been labelled a “stunt” and a feel-good exercise — but has the full support of his political rival.

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PREMIER Jay Weatherill’s plan for a royal commission into the alleged theft of Murray River water has been labelled a “stunt” — but has the support of his political rival.

Opposition Leader Steven Marshall backed the push and committed a state Liberal Government to funding the inquiry if it wins office in the March election.

However, his federal colleague, Assistant Minister for Water Resources Anne Ruston, labelled the state-based royal commission a “political stunt” and argued it was unnecessary because other inquiries were underway.

Others have questioned whether it would have the power to compel interstate witnesses to give evidence.

Premier Jay Weatherill. Picture: AAP/Mark Brake

Mr Weatherill insisted that the commissioner, to be named by the end of the year, “can have powers of compulsion”, but they would “explore co-operation” first.

However, SA Best leader Nick Xenophon said it would be “very difficult to do this without the co-operation of the other states”.

Mr Xenophon said a state inquiry “might make some of us feel good but it won’t actually do much good”.

“I understand what the Premier is trying to achieve but it’s going to end up costing us millions of dollars with no results,” he said.

Ms Ruston labelled the inquiry a “political stunt” but said the Federal Government would not “stand in its way”.

She said there were already five inquiries into the Basin Plan underway and the Federal Government would act on those rather than launch a national royal commission.

“South Australia is not being denied one drop of water by the actions that are being alleged in NSW. The allegations are serious but ... they’re stealing (water) from each other.”

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said that if Mr Weatherill wanted to spend taxpayers’ money “for purely political reasons, he’s free to do that”.

“Jay wants to play politics, look he’s got a state election coming up, so he wants to pick a fight with everybody else. He wants to pick a fight with the upstream states, wants to pick a fight with the Federal Government,” he said.

Mr Weatherill warned “it could very well be that for every drop of water we divert back into the river we’ve got some person upstream pinching it”.

He questioned whether political donations were “being used to buy political favours or people turning a blind eye?”.

Mr Weatherill could not say how much the royal commission would cost, but expected it to be less than the $7.2 million price tag for the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission.

He said Premiers in upstream states had “not ruled out” co-operating with the inquiry.

He stressed the State Government would pursue any criminal wrongdoing uncovered by the inquiry though the courts, which would come at a further cost to taxpayers.