Corpratising the Snowy Mountains Scheme: hijacking environmental concerns for commercial gain

The Snowy Mountains Project is a large multi-purpose water project that was planned and built to serve the people of Australia as a whole. The project had a catalytic effect on the development of the nation. The benefits of the Scheme have steadily increased over the years.

It is now 50 years since the start of the Scheme. In that 50 years, the population of Australia has trebled, and electricity production in Australia has increased by more than 20 times. The peak capacity of the Scheme was enlarged accordingly. Peak capacity of the Snowy could readily increase further. The scheme has enabled a major increase in the volume and value of irrigation in the Murray-Darling Basin.

The Snowy Mountains Scheme is monumental in world terms. Much of the major construction of the Scheme was underground, with some of the world's largest and longest water diversion tunnels and underground power stations.

It is a complex, integrated, water management system, regarded as one of the most complex and successful water management systems in the world.

The process of corporatisation of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Authority (SMHEA) began with a Council of Australian Governments (COAG) decision in 1993. I wonder if they had any idea at the time of the mind-boggling complexity involved. The Environmental Impact Study Report on the corporatisation of SMHEA includes this statement, "The Snowy corporatisation process involves the development of some thirty inter-governmental agreements to replace the current governance arrangements and to provide for a competitively neutral regulatory regime."

I think the whole process is doctrinaire and irrational. It all started on the wrong course of action because COAG tried to apply the rules for private or public thermal power stations to a complex, multi-purpose, national, water resource project. COAG probably thought it was a good idea at the time. It is now obvious that it was not, and the muddle has grown steadily for seven years, seemingly without prospect of resolution.

For many reasons, it is vitally important that the ownership, management and continued operation of the Scheme be a clear responsibility of the Australian Government, not a state or a group of states, or the private sector, but the nation.

It really does not matter what the Constitution may say about the limits to the powers of the Commonwealth, the fact is that the Snowy Scheme now exists, and must now be managed and further developed in the interests of the nation as a whole. The High Court would certainly recognise that fact.

There are many examples around the world of similar national projects that are owned and managed by national governments, and which operate harmoniously with the private sector and state and local governments.

The rapid progress on the design and construction of the Snowy Scheme was made possible by a cordial relationship between the young Snowy Authority and the long established and experienced United States Bureau of Reclamation.

The Bureau of Reclamation today is an outstanding example of the way the Australian Government should approach the management of national multi-purpose water projects:-