The water crisis.

The Federal government has proposed a plan to drought proof Australia. It has offered to spend ten billion dollars over ten years to save the mighty Murray/Darling river systems which flow through the eastern states.
The plan will require the states to give up their constitutional rights to manage these rivers and the Feds warn that they will need to buy back irrigation allocations from farmers who are trying to farm land that should be returned to pasture.
Many farms will need to be relocated to areas such as northern Queensland and northern Western Australia where there is water in abundance - thanks to the annual monsoon - and thus crop yeilds can be sustained.
The Federal largesse will be shared with country towns which will be required to cover delivery systems to reduce evapouration, build additional storage and implement recycling to save precious drinking water.
So far the states have been making cooperative noises, but such is the power of politics that the Labor dominated states and territories must be pondering the political significance of giving up their water powers to Canberra.
In the past, state governments have acted in their state interests by bestowing irrigation rights to farmers. In many cases this was for irrigation of arid land and resulted in an unsustainable draw on the rivers that are the vascular system of this country.
It is helpful that many farmers are conservative voters and Labor should not pay a price at the polls for cooperation. At the same time, state premiers should be relieved at having shifted the problem of water from their shoulders to that of the Federal government.
In a reverse scenarion, should the states buck this transfer they could well face a serious backlash from city and country voters who are concerned at global warming and know we are facing a critical water situation. Opposition leader Kevin Rudd is backing the Federal proposal and is urging the states to go alongh with it.
From here the wrangling will get under way. The states will no doubt want alterations to the plan and the Feds would be wise to consider such requests - but in the long run a Federal management of this mighty river system - removed from state pork barrelling - is the only way this country will get a sustainable supply of water to cities, towns and farmers !