Victoria's tactic of drawing out negotiations over the Federal Government's $10 billion plan for water security in the Murray Darling Basin has backfired this week, and the State's only real chance to upgrade and reform many of its major dilapidated irrigation systems has evaporated.
The Federal Government call on external affairs constitutional powers will essentially force Victoria to cede control in many areas it had already agreed to hand over in principle anyway, but the Premier's refusal to continue negotiations and have no part in the deal means neighbouring States will surge ahead in irrigation reform thanks to the government's $10 billion plan, and Victoria will have to go it alone.
There's no denying that the past six months' negotiations has seen an immense amount of legislative detail clarified and inserted into the water reform draft bill.
Farmers' efforts to get major operational detail squeezed out of the water bureaucrats in Canberra to enshrine their own rights has seen the bill re-drafted close to 60 times, and that is commendable, and will no doubt continue until all of the few remaining concerns are addressed.
But while some have taken a positive engagement approach to ensure the bill proceeds, with the appropriate safeguards for farmers, the Victorian Government, and to an extent the Victorian Farmers Federation, have carried on as though they don't really need the plan.
Very often Victorians have claimed their irrigation systems are superior, and VFF president Simon Ramsay was once quoted as saying that "quite frankly, I don't care if the deal doesn't go ahead".
Now many facets of the plan will be out of their reach, including the chance to upgrade weirs and channels in places like the Goulburn Valley – hardly an example of fine or modern irrigation systems.
Victoria will have to meet the same kinds of nationally-set caps for the system, deal with the same compliance expectations, but do much of it on its own.
It is a shame that Victoria always believed the plan would go ahead with one set of rules, while other States would have to play by another.
Water is a national asset, which knows no State boundaries and reform needs to forget the politics and parochialism of the past and adopt the big picture approach.
It's a shame the same spirit of co-operation and lack of parochialism and politics seen during the $501 million Wimmera-Mallee pipeline were not adopted for these negotiations.
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff