A MILDURA Council motion for a federal royal commission into management of the Murray-Darling Basin received overwhelming support at the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) state council meeting.
Mildura deputy mayor Jason Modica said he was pleased by the support of the delegates from the 79 councils represented at the two-day meeting in Melbourne last week.
“To have those 79 councils agree to question state and federal politicians on why there seems to have been a push-back from the big political parties about looking into water, this is a great trigger to say, ‘OK, let’s have a deeper look’,” he said.
“There was a South Australian royal commission that federal politicians and employees didn’t go to.
“A deeper magnifying glass needs to be put over all those questions and it is great to see the 79 councils in Victoria passed that.”
Cr Modica said the first time the council became aware of the need for a royal commission was in August 2017 after the Pumped episode aired on ABC’s Four Corners.
The motion calls for an independent audit on water-saving schemes, trading, ownership, extraction and allocation and with the power to subpoena representatives including politicians, government agencies and peak bodies.
Cr Modica said there was “really challenging debate from different points of view” in the chamber on water.
“They have actually got to this point and said what’s water going to look like, how difficult is it for smaller farmers to compete against corporate money and what is the deeper respect for the natural need of flowing river, so we can have health communities with a healthy river.”
He said MAV would now push governments on the issue.
Two other motions put forward by Mildura Council involved Mildura’s “water crisis” and broadening of the rate review strategy, which highlighted capital-improved value and differences between rating metropolitan and rural areas.
“The (waste management) motion talked heavily about product stewardship, the waste crisis and how long it had been building before there was some form of interest to develop a different version of how we treat our waste, consideration of what we generate and where it goes when it’s done,” Cr Modica said.
“Most other councils were supportive in looking at (the Murray-Darling Basin and waste management) because they have been considered problems for a few years now.
“So, things get a bit of momentum and then when the MAV acknowledges it we can go ahead and develop it.”
