The Senate inquiry into the Murray Darling is due to report later this week and Independent Senator Nick Xenophon and Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young [ pictured] have laid it on the line to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Labor.
You have to love the new balance of power that the Senate has. Last week we saw Family First Senator Steve Fielding winning the practical and much needed exemption for farmers from the “Luxury car tax”. This week we’ll see enormous pressure on the government to in the words of Senator Hanson-Young “pull the states into line”.
The Greens Senator from South Australia said the federal Government had to step in and remove Victoria’s 4 per cent annual limit on the amount of water that can be traded from its irrigation districts.
Echoing those sentiments, Senator Xenophon, also from South Australia, told The Australian: “
“The Rudd Government has lacked the political backbone, to use that Paul Keating phrase.
The Rudd Government, when it comes to taking on Premier Brumby, has been a shiver looking for a spine.“
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The main reason that the Crisis is happening is because of years of bloody minded political State parochialism.
The “we are fine, so stuff you Jack” attitude of Victorian Premier John Brumby [ pictured] in relation to the Murray again sparked a verbal war between the states on Friday when he declared Victoria was doing all the “heavy lifting” when it came to saving the Murray River.
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Senator Xenophon summed it up when he said,
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“When Mr Brumby tries to lecture us about responsible water policy it’s a bit like Osama bin Laden calling for world peace.
The Government doesn’t have the numbers in the Senate and I think that they need to heed the need for using their powers,”
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So at last we might see the Senate force a federal government to take control of the Murray Darling System. As long as management of the basin is divided between the Governments of four States - (Victoria, New South wales, Queensland and South Australia) it will be what it always be as it has been - a disaster.
The sooner we get rid of state governments altogether, will be for the better in my book.
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