January 26, 2007
A new federalism dawns in Australia:
Sean Leahy
The commonwealth takeover is understandable as the states, for all their talk of co-operative federalism, have really made a mess of water. They were responsible for the over-allocation of water in the Murray-Darling Basin,and they have been too concerned to protect the irrigated agriculture interests within their borders to claw back the over-allocations to ensure environmental flows in the Basin's rivers. The states, in short, have botched it.
Mike Steketee, writing in The Australian says that the pace of co-operative federalism is not suited to a crisis, which is what the water situation has become. Last November's projections by the Murray-Darling Basin Commission of a continuation of present conditions showed dams running dry by April or May this year. Inflows into the Murray last year were 40 per cent of the previous record low, putting at risk cities, towns and communities dependent on irrigation. He adds that:
Howard is asking the states to refer powers to the commonwealth because he would be on shaky constitutional grounds in forcing a wholesale takeover. The Murray-Darling Basin Commission is not set up as a company, so he cannot use the corporations power of the Constitution, as he did with industrial relations. He intends reconstituting the commission as a commonwealth agency reporting to Malcolm Turnbull as the new Minister for the Environment and Water Resources. Given Turnbull's energy and drive, that will overcome a few of the previous problems of slow decision making.
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