Sharman Stone MP

 

Presenter:       Joseph Thomsen

 

Talent:             Dr Sharman Stone, Federal Member for Murray

 

Topic:              Auditor Generals Irrigation Efficiency Program Report

 

E&OE……………………….………………………………………………………………………………..

 

 

STONE:            Joseph, the Auditor General’s Irrigation Efficiency Programs report said the (North- South) pipeline, the Foodbowl Modernisation and the other smaller projects like the Goulburn system channels themselves and so on were rushed ahead without due consideration for best options, best value for money, no proper planning, no capacity to actually measure whether they had achieved that outcomes or not – but because of the shambolic way that they went ahead.

 

I have to say we see this every day now, as we have farmers coming into my office saying ‘Look the job has only been half done’, ‘the contractors have walked away’, or ‘the contractors are working on channels which we know are to be closed’.

 

All of this is going on and I’m afraid the Auditor General virtually despairingly said this cannot be used as an excuse for a rushed high risk job. These jobs should have been carefully planned and done in a way that delivers a great future for irrigation.

 

PRESENTER:    But Water Minister Tim Holding said, we had to act quickly, we were in desperate straights water wise and that’s what they did.

 

STONE:            Well the Auditor General actually spells out in the Executive Summary, where he says in relation to just the pipeline they could used that excuse. But that is only one of the 4 projects they looked at. The others were long term to be carefully considered like the foodbowl modernisation itself, and so you can’t use that excuse of we had to rush this because there was a crisis. No, it should have had proper planning. These works should have been carefully considered.

 

 One of the points the Auditor General keeps making is that they didn’t look at a whole range of options; What is the best way to find water savings? Is it just plastic lining? Is it just metering, or are there a range of other ways you can go about improving the irrigation system?

 

None of those options or a whole range of other options were ever considered. It was all a one track notion of ‘we are going to do this and let’s work out how we can do this as fast as possible’.

 

PRESENTER:    Will the Auditor General’s report influence the $1 billion of federal money yet to come in your view?

 

STONE:            It must do. Now I am very concerned we do get that second $1 billion from the Federal Government. But they must of course look at this report. At the moment they are doing a due diligence examination of the business case put up by NVIRP. So I hope in them reading this report they will say to themselves the Victorian Government can get it better and get it right next time.

 

We are not going to with draw our one billion because they obviously been so hopeless, so shambolic and wasted so much money. There is a very serious consequence of this report and I am hoping the Federal Government doesn’t use this as an excuse to walk away from Stage 2.

 

Stage 2 must be better. It must work well. It must be good value for money because of all the lessons learned with this halfway through stage one, which as the Auditor General’s report describes has just been too often a waste of money, bad process, bad planning. Really a government like Victoria should have known better.

 

PRESENTER:    Dr Sharman Stone thanks for your time this morning.

 

STONE:            Lovely to talk to you Joseph.