It is not sufficient to make broad comments and recommendations about what should be fixed without recognizing and taking into account why and how such matters got to the stage of needing to be fixed.

For example, it is clear that the management of the Basin’s water resources in a complex multi-jurisdictional environment requires better co-operation amongst the Basin States and the Commonwealth.

However, it is manifestly inadequate to simply recommend that these jurisdictions should ‘collaborate’ and ‘take joint responsibility’, without also taking into account and considering the historical context of why those jurisdictions failed to collaborate and take joint responsibility.

A problem can only be solved completely by understanding its underlying cause. Otherwise, any purported solutions will only, at best, address its symptoms. Bret Walker, Commissioner