Advisory Board

KEN MATTHEWS Ken Matthews AO

Ken Matthews, Chief Executive of the National Water Commission, is well used to the reaction of audiences when he is introduced as having grown up on a rice farm. “Half the audience sit forward in their chairs as if to say ‘Perhaps he knows a thing or two’, and the rest sit back as if to say ‘Oh my goodness a rice farmer’,” says Ken, who has been on the Institute’s advisory board since inception. “So I’ve probably got it about right.”

Ken, who is 57, grew up on a farm in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area near Griffith, NSW. Even though he has lived in Canberra since 1975, he has always had a strong interest in regional Australia.

“It’s one of the reasons I participate in the Institute’s advisory board,” says Ken. “Inland Australia, water, natural resource management… I’ve always been interested in those kinds of things in my career, but I also have a strong personal interest as well.” Since completing his Degree in Economics at Sydney University (majoring in government), Ken has had a varied career in the Public
Service in the Commonwealth Government, including a year working for the Canadian government on exchange. He spent eight years working in the Defence area (as a civilian in the strategic planning and intelligence areas; eight years in the Industry and Technology portfolio (where he worked on science, echnology and manufacturing policy); and about eight years in Primary Industries (initially in energy, mining and fisheries and later agriculture, eventually becoming the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture in 1998. From there he moved to become the Secretary of the Department of Transport and Regional Services.

Five years ago he took on his current position with the then newly created National Water Commission of which, as one of its seven government appointed commissioners, he is both the Chair and its
CEO. While the Commission is a far smaller organisation than those Ken has run in the past, the main reason he was attracted to the role was because of his interest in water, irrigation, irrigation
communities and the environment… “all of which was in the water reform agenda of the National Water Initiative.”

Ken explains that while the Commission has nine roles, its main role is to provide public reports to COAG about how well the reform commitments of the governments of Australia, made when all governments signed the National Water Initiative in 2004, are going. In October the Commission released its second report, the 2009 Biennial Assessment, a 300 page report about progress on water reform in Australia. “Australia’s water is still in trouble,” says Ken. “There is progress because we have the National Water Initiative, but in almost all areas of reform we are behind the targets that governments set for themselves. We do need to pick up the pace and improve performance by all governments.” However, as Ken says, the Commission tries to be more than an “armchair critic”. “Whenever we can see a practical thing that needs to be done, if it is within our resources, we will make the investment ourselves,” says Ken. An example of this is its Raising National Water Standards Program, where the Commission has made significant investments into looking at how national water resources are managed and monitored, and in the development of tools, frameworks and methodologies for better water management (including environmental water.) “We don’t fund pure research as such; it has to result in a product such as a new methodology for some aspect of water management,” explains Ken. Now in his second three-year appointment to the Commission, Ken says he loves the job. When it comes to the Institute, Ken says he is a great believer in research that is relevant to inland Australia and to good natural resource management, i.e. research that is meaningful for the Murray-Darling Basin and the people that live west of the Great Dividing Range. “I want those people and those research institutions and universities west of the Great Divide to prosper,” says Ken. “So if I can contribute a little bit from my experience then I am happy to do that.”

At the recent Institute Advisory Board meeting Ken talked about the structural changes facing regional Australia. “I think the economic and social changes in regional Australia are a big emerging issue
which will be really important for water reform and certainly important for the communities affected by it,” says Ken. “Whilst changing water availability is one of the challenges, this is part of wider picture
along with many other factors that influence adjustment in regional Australia, for example demographic change, economic reforms and commodity prices. Ken says that as a nation we need to
make adjustment processes as smooth as possible. A key way of doing so is by getting as much information out there as possible about likely future trends and projections affecting water availability,
markets and demographics.“That way people can take informed decisions - people as individuals, as farming families, as farm dependent or irrigation dependent communities,” he says. “Everyone
has to take decisions so the more information out there about all those things the better. I’ve been urging that as much information as possible be put out there in a user-friendly way so that people
can really take those important decisions for themselves, their families and their communities.”

For this to happen, researchers need to make their information accessible to the general community. “This may mean a translation from research in its primary form to a more accessible form,” says
Ken. “The very best researchers can do both. They can qualify for A star journals and at the same time make their findings relevant to and accessible to the Murrumbidgee Irrigator.”

Article appeared in Connections, February 2010