Minister Burke needs to explain inconsistencies between his comments to the media and the advice given to him by the Australian Government Solicitor, Senator Barnaby Joyce said today.
In response to a question on Sky News this morning, Mr Burke rejected the view that the Water Act gives primacy to environmental factors:
Paul Kelly: ... while all factors have got to be optimised [by the Water Act 2007] at the end of the day primacy needs to be given to environmental factors. Now you're rejecting that are you?
Tony Burke: Yeah I am and there's a bit of a sleight of hand in how some of those conclusions are reached.
Minister Burke's statement ignores advice given to him by the Australian Government Solicitor in October last year:
Both conventions [Ramsar Convention and Convention on Biological Diversity] establish a framework in which environmental objectives have primacy but the implementation of environmental objectives allows consideration of social and economic factors.*
Section 21(1) of the Water Act 2007 requires that these international agreements be "implemented".
Minister Burke's view is also inconsistent with the views of Professor George Williams and the Productivity Commission. **
"Minister Burke has to explain himself to Professor George Williams and the Productivity Commission. Is the Minister seriously accusing a respected constitutional lawyer and the Government's own economic advice body, of a 'sleight of hand'" said Senator Joyce.
"The Coalition proposed last year a bipartisan investigation of the Water Act which the Labor party and the Greens refused to support.
"The only people trying a sleight of hand is a Labor government scared to act on the Act because of their coalition with the Greens."
* Australian Government Solicitor, The role of social and economic factors in the Basin Plan, 25 October, paragraph 23.
** ''It [Water Act 2007] says they have to give primacy to the environment and then they can give consideration to social and environmental effects,'' Professor Williams said.
Lenore Taylor, ' Basin plan gets bogged down in legal wrangling', Sydney Morning Herald, 27 October 2010.
The Commission’s interpretation of the Water Act 2007 (Cwlth) is that it requires the Murray-Darling Basin Authority to determine environmental watering needs based on scientific information, but precludes consideration of economic and social costs in deciding the extent to which these needs should be met.
Productivity Commission, Market Mechanisms for Recovering Water in the Murray-Darling Basin, Final Report, March 2010