Surely you should be in the Labor party, Malcolm. Pretty good article, I thought, but I don't think that many people are going to believe that little bit of token anti-labour rhetoric at the end.

You are much too moderate and reasonable to help unite the liberal cause.

Definately should have been a labor man, he has far too much wisdom for the ,rabbit clan.

I don't think there is anyway Malcolm is a Labor man. You're just perpatuating a caricature of what Liberals are.

What I am interested in is related to the article and is the argument that the water savings measures actually reduced flow to the Murray. That it is a zero sum game. The water that leaked was actually returned. Because it is not leaking as much anymore then the river is more deprived of water.

The reason why there was no nett gain to the environment was that the farmers were still getting the water that was being saved. Under Malcolm's plan, the additional water that is being saved will actually be available for the environment.

The Labor Party as usual thinks that the solution to the problem is just to throw money at it without first thinking what the outcome of their spending will be. By giving money to the farmers to buy back their water, all that will happen will be a reduction in the output from the farms and a reduction in the workforce in the basin to the complete detriment of not only the two million inhabitants of the basin, but the rest of the population as well.

Malcolm's plan may take longer to implement, but in the end it will be a win for the farmers and their communities and the food supply and a win for the environment as well.

David

Malcolm will be the PM of Australia one day, mark my words. A Labor PM.

Labor's almost to the right of Attila The Hun these days, it'll be an easy transition for Malcolm once he deserts the Liberals.

Graham, he may not be a Labor man, but he should be. His thinking is far too muddled, & he is far to able with his use of spin, to be a Liberal.

It would be to every one's advantage for him to swap parties to Labor. Lets face it, I can think of only one person who could be worse than their present leader, & they've tried him all ready.

It is nice to see someone talking a little sense on the subject of water usage, however I feel his talking in generalities is an attempt to cover a lack of adequate research, on the subject, to give his article any authority.

However, I would have thought you would have noticed that the Liberal party removed him from the leadership position some time back, thank heaven. Have you failed to update some computer that prints your thumbnail descriptions?

The water buy back is not all about taking water from those that use the water. There's a lot of people that are using water entitlement as a savings account for the future. This is the aim of buyback, to take these entitlements so they can not be onsold and used to deplete the river of more water. [ not all water entitlements are in practise ]

Of course, the farmers are not the only ones who have been profligate with their use of the water. The people who live in the towns and cities have a lot to answer for as well. If they were comfined to the usage of those who live out in the "bush" with only rainfall for our water supply, they would be forced to learn what being careful with water is. We are on the equivalent of stage 4 restrictions most of the time.

David