What a difference the client makes when it comes to water studies

The Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation (SMEC) desktop study into water diversion from NSW Northern Rivers catchments has been rightly criticised for not addressing possible impacts of climate change.

It is interesting to note that a much earlier SMEC report on commercial prawn trawling in NSW estuaries, including the Clarence River, did address energy and greenhouse gas issues.

The earlier report was commissioned by NSW Government (NSW Fisheries), the latter by the C'wealth National Water Commission at the behest of Malcolm Turnbull.

This tends to support an argument that SMEC may have tailored its desktop study recommendations to suit the Howard Government's current political objectives.

See:
 http://www.environment.gov.au/coasts/fisheries/nsw/prawntrawl/pubs/smec.pdf