Malcolm Turnbull’s agenda held to ‘ransom’

The Australian 12:00am November 26, 2016

David Crowe

Malcolm Turnbull’s agenda is being held to ransom in a clash over the Murray-Darling river system, as Senate powerbroker Nick Xenophon demands an ­expensive deal on water reform as the price for his vote on government bills.

The ultimatum sent the government reeling late yesterday amid fears its workplace relations reforms could be put in limbo, cruelling plans to legislate new curbs on unions when parliament resumes on Monday.

Furious at the setback, some Coalition MPs blamed Nationals leader and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce for igniting a fight over water that antagonised Senator Xenophon at a sensitive point in Senate negotiations.

The government is now under intense pressure to solve a problem that extends from Queensland to South Australia over how to restore 450 gigalitres to the river system, the subject of Senator Xenophon’s complaint.

“We need to sort out this water mess before we sort out any other pieces of legislation the government is interested in,” Senator Xenophon said in a public statement yesterday.

There was anger at Senator Xenophon for vowing to block government bills in the final week of parliament without offering a clear idea of how to meet his demands, given an impasse between the states over the 450 gigalitres.

Mr Joyce told The Weekend Australian last night the move could be called a form of “ransom” but the government needed to see a concrete proposal before it could meet any demands.

“We don’t actually know what the ransom is,” he said. “I heard Nick’s commentary but I haven’t heard what he actually wants. It’s a dangerous form of politics when you get two unrelated policies and link them.”

Every day of delay to the bill to restore the Australian Building and Construction Commission — the trigger for this year’s double-dissolution election — now presents the government with new requests for amendments, forcing the Prime Minister to negotiate to rescue his agenda.

Mr Turnbull is arranging talks with Senator Xenophon this weekend to allay concerns over the river and try to secure the three upper house votes in the Nick Xenophon Team.

In a sign of the pressure on all sides, The Weekend Australian was told of “robo-calls” to voters in South Australia in recent days that were apparently funded by unions to claim Senator Xenophon was “soft” on water reform.

The calls were aimed at forcing Senator Xenophon to withdraw support from the ABCC bill as he negotiates with Employment Minister Michaelia Cash to secure payments for subcontractors. Senator Xenophon dismissed the South Australian union campaign as “Orwellian in its misleading audacity” given his history of fighting for the state on water. “SA Unions should look in their own backward and the fact they’ve stood by while SA workers have lost workers’ compensation rights,” he told The Weekend Australian.

The latest row over water began last week when Mr Joyce wrote to South Australian Environment Minister Ian Hunter telling him it would be too hard to put an additional 450GL down the river, with consequences for the state’s default share of 36GL.

“I believe that we are heading into an unprotracted [sic?] and unsolvable stalemate,” Mr Joyce wrote on November 17.

The 450GL are meant to be made available by 2024 but should be done so without causing socio-economic harm, which could force the government to spend heavily on infrastructure to save water because buybacks would breach the rules.

One Liberal MP said the letter made it difficult for Senator Xenophon to back down in a dispute about his home state.

“Barnaby is largely to blame for this, if not entirely to blame,” he said. “Xenophon’s reaction was entirely foreseeable.”

Another source said Senator Xenophon was “not being unreasonable” and appeared open to discussion to fix the problem.

Queensland, NSW and Victoria also bear responsibility for the impasse on water flows but have stepped back from the dispute with South Australia, leaving the federal government to take the political heat.

Senator Xenophon acknowledged the states had to contribute to the outcome but he argued the Turnbull government had a leadership role on the issue, given the formal agreement between all parties to restore the Murray-Darling.

“I just want the agreement and the promises to be honoured,” he told The Weekend Australian. “I’m quietly confident there can be a sensible resolution to this if people come to the table in good faith.”

Senator Xenophon countered the idea he was holding the government to ransom by saying Mr Joyce’s letter had triggered the problem. “I’m not the one who wrote that letter — it was like setting off a hand grenade,” he said.

Mr Joyce defended his actions by saying the letter had to be written ahead of a meeting of state and federal ministers in Adelaide where the problem of the 450GL was on the agenda. At stake is the ability of regional communities throughout the Murray-Darling system to maintain agricultural production at a time when water is being restored to the river out of environmental concerns.

Mr Turnbull has stepped into the row to try to broker an agreement, speaking in recent days to Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, NSW Premier Mike Baird, South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill and Senator Xenophon. He has also repeated a government assurance that it will deliver the Murray-Darling plan and do so on time.

One problem for Mr Turnbull is Senator Xenophon’s demand the South Australian government be happy with any outcome, giving Mr Weatherill an indirect way to put pressure on Canberra over the ABCC bill, which Labor vehemently opposes.