JF Aus,
The fight against poverty is not simply a fight for more food or more money, it also requires a huge input of thinking clearly & that I think is the toughest component in the scheme of things. I have seen money thrown at poverty & nothing changed, I have seen money thrown at stimulating the economy & nothing changed, I have seen money thrown at education & things are getting worse. I have yet to see money being given to schemes which provide employment, offer shelter, offer internal revenue but most of all provide for a solid base of a strong, sober & cohesive society. I have not seen even any attempt to offer people the opportunity to build a functioning society. There's only one & one only way to start & that is National Service. Unless people can have a degree of hope rather than constantly search for loopholes in a system full of holes we can not seriously expect to get people to view life with a realistic & sober attitude. This me, myself & I mentality is a mentality that leads to ruin or hasn't anyone noticed yet ?

Extort more money from the workers so that "Do-Gooders" can hand out alms (with a sizable handling cost), sounds like more of stupid. Largesse has not been responsible for lifting people out of poverty, it's been business. Get non-workers such as soft topic Uni Profs., many Government fools and other sundry "Progressives" something useful (harmless) to do and let it continue.

A lot of good thoughts there, JF Aus, and I agree with you 100% - if it can be done it should be done, in respect of both water from the North and the management and preservation of the marine and aquatic ecosystems.
So many fail to see the value of the world's oceans, and the extent to which they are being over-exploited and rubbished and polluted. The human race will pay dearly for this lack of stewardship.

Water from the North will be an enormously expensive undertaking, but, much like railways, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme, it would prove to be money very wisely spent, and provide enormous long term benefit in the race for national and global sustainability. Definitely a game-changer.
There should be some scope in there for hydroelectricity production along the way as well perhaps, at least in the upper reaches?
Also an opportunity to advance long-line tunneling technology I would think, and certainly provide work for many, and the chance to learn some valuable skills.

Fingers crossed your vision will take hold in appropriate quarters, and the money found to lift us out of our current nowhere treadmill and genuinely into the 21st Century. (And before cheap, or affordable energy vanishes into the mist.)

if it can be done it should be done,
Saltpetre,
It will be done because there is no other way out. Instead of highways going everywhere from the coast there should be a Mono Rail system to west of the range FROM which then roads can go off accessing & servicing the adjacent communities.
The employment from that alone would create sufficient internal revenue to make it all viable for both State & Federal Government to invest in such a scheme. Just keep the experts at bay & it'll be a success.

Maybe the android phone companies will come up with a 'beam me down Scotty' flip phone, to get here and there!

Malcolm Turnbull, it's high time you upped the ante in the fight against poverty for a number of reasons.

1. You as a politician and your electorate that includes the Bondi sewage outfall into the ocean, are the biggest sewage nutrient polluter of the SW Pacific Ocean. Tony Abbott/s electorate with the major North Head sewage gets second prize. Both plants are dumping unmanaged nutrient pollution. SE winds drive fresher surface water against the shore. Alongshore coastal current transports fresher water and bonded nutrients northward into coastal estuary and Great Barrier Reef waters where severe damage is occurring. http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/great-reef-catastrophe-20121002-26vzq.html

2. Empirical evidence of substance categorically established beyond reasonable doubt that sewage nutrient pollution has already damaged and destroyed rare areas of SW Pacific seagrass food web nurseries. Those areas are supposed to feed seafood dependent animals and Pacific Islands and Australian people.

3. Loss of free or low cost fish supply is causing chronic poverty, MDG’s going backwards.

4. Australian politicians and major media have been virtually ignoring the situation. Absurd fishing restrictions including a “throw back the juveniles but kill the adult breeding stock”, has led to a now critically serious collapse of world ocean food sustainability.
http://www.spc.int/en/employment/1074-getting-to-the-point-on-pacific-tuna-fisheries.html

5. Australian politicians and major media failed to participate in the 2004 United Nations Wold Environment Day focus of "Wanted Dead or Alive - seas and oceans".

6. Politicians from all sides can no longer ignore the real state of the marine environment and need for whole of water ecosystem management involving socio-economic opportunities for Australia and the environment while at the same time assisting to achieve Millennium Development Goals. Seafood dependent people and most people need affordable food. Check the price of fish these days. Fish and chips used to be staple food for poorer people.

7. Sewage nutrient pollution is even destroying water quality in Lake Burley Griffin on a river that runs into ocean coast food web currents. http://www.nationalcapital.gov.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2331:parts-of-lake-burley-griffin-remains-closed-to-swimming&catid=136:2012-media-releases&Itemid=859

Julie Bishop writes articles on this OLO Forum site. Malcolm Turnbull should also participate.

What do you say Malcolm Turnbull? Or what do other politicians do or say?