The feds are playing us for FOI fools again. Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull has refused to give Channel Seven access to all of the documents detailing the $10 billion plan to seize control of the Murray Darling Basin — including a very mysterious diagram.

Seven’s freedom of information editor Michael McKinnon has discovered that key government departments were locked out of the policy process altogether. We know this policy was thrown together in an almighty hurry. We know that it didn’t go to Cabinet. We know that $10 billion of public funds was allocated without Treasury or Finance being consulted.

So we can only conclude from this kerfuffle that the policy was thrown together by the Prime Minister’s and Malcolm Turnbull’s offices, with a bit of help from the departments of Prime Minister and Cabinet and Environment.

Channel Seven was told that the barred documents may “not represent the Government’s final position”. Does the Government really believe that the public is too stupid to differentiate between advice and outcomes? Unless, of course, they are simply worried by the haste and poverty of their research and planning. This drawing, on the back of a napkin from the Catalina eatery in Turnbull territory that landed in the Crikey mailbag this morning may hold a clue. Could this be the diagram in question?