It hardly made a ripple: South Australia's <i>Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission Report</i> in rural news discourse

In January 2019, the South Australian Government released the report of its Royal Commission into the Murray-Darling Basin, which investigated the implementation of the Basin Plan and allegations of water theft in upstream states. This study analyses the report and specialist rural media coverage of it. Previous research has found that rural media imaginaries of the rural space validate the ‘productive’ use of land and reinforce the discursive power of rural elites such as political actors, industry bodies and landholders, offering few opportunities for alternative voices. Drawing on the concepts of ‘agrarian imaginary’ and ‘settler common sense’ and adopting discourse analysis as a methodology, we found that while the report made a clear connection between settler activities and the ill health of the Basin, specialist rural media did not approach it as an opportunity to broaden the dominant rural imaginary but further cemented the productive use of land discourse.