The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has recommended changes to the State’s water management following an investigation into corruption allegations.
In its report, Investigation into complaints of corruption in the management of water in NSW and systemic non-compliance with the Water Management Act 2000 (WMA), the ICAC said governing legislation priorities had been undermined over the past decade by the responsible Department’s repeated tendency to adopt an approach that ICAC considered was unduly focused on the interests of the irrigation industry.
“The ICAC examined multiple allegations, over almost a decade, in two related investigations (Operation Avon and Operation Mezzo), concerning complaints of corruption involving the management of water, particularly in the Barwon-Darling area of the Murray-Darling Basin,” the ICAC said.
“Ultimately the Commission was not satisfied in relation to any of the matters it investigated that the evidence established that any person had engaged in corrupt conduct for the purposes of the Independent Commission Against Corruption Act 1988,” it said.
The Commission said that in many of the matters investigated certain decisions and approaches by Government water management Departments over the past decade were inconsistent with the object, principles and duties of the WMA and failed to implement legislated priorities for water sharing.
It said the development and implementation of the 2012 Barwon-Darling Water Sharing Plan represented a failure to adhere to the priorities set out in the WMA.
“Specific failures in the administrative arrangements concerning water regulation and compliance also created an atmosphere that was overly favourable to irrigators,” the ICAC said.
“This was largely due to chronic underfunding, organisational dysfunction and a lack of commitment to compliance,” it said.
The Commission made 15 recommendations aimed at addressing issues of improper favouritism for the irrigation industry and the focus on irrigators’ interests within water Agencies.
The ICAC’s 164-page report can be downloaded at this PS News link.
