Notwithstanding Peter Crawford’s considered approach to our water woes, his plan is doomed to fail. Dr Crawford, your plan is doomed to fail because it lacks one vital element. Nowhere in your plan do you mention an overseas trip for the various state and federal ministers who have carriage of that vital commodity: water.

For your plan to succeed you must budget for an overseas trip by the various ministers and his or her spouses/partners to the usual 5 star locations of Paris, Rome, London, New York and Vienna. The fact-finding-missions should align with various forms of entertainment including an ‘ashes’ cricket match in England; a performance of Lucia di Lammermoor by Academe Nationale de Musique in Paris; a concert by the three tenors in Rome; and perhaps a chance to party with Paris in New York.

Dr Crawford, doesn’t it strike you as odd that in 2007 we are debating matters that should have been fixed in 1970

Sage has put the Healthy Rivers Commission in some sort of perspective
I can recall as a Landcare functionary once making a submission to the HRC on issues to do with the Hunter River - the HRC only deals with NSW rivers. It had such a beaut title that I thought it must be the most important port of call for an environmental/riverine environmentalist as I was. My plea was that licences to pump from the river be tied to the applicants progress in doing all those environmental things like fencing off cattle, planting wind breaks etc.
Over this same time period I also used to respond to many NSW Governmental agency calls for submissions/objections to new water pumping licences from applicants.
I can report that not one jot of notice was taken of my efforts and now with an unprecedented drought and a realisation that massive over allocation of licences has occurred, somehow I feel vindicated if not a little cheated. Feeling wise after the event isn't much comfort when your perception is that those in authority regard you as a outlandish nuisance

It's about time that Peter Crawford and other academics and bureaucrats in this field of so-called "healthy" rivers, supposedly highly-protected catchments and catchment management resigned en masse in protest about what is really going on.

When community volunteers are crying out for support and advice from experts like him in a struggle to protect rivers, catchments and aquifers from irreparable mine damage, these "professionals" are nowhere to be seen.

Oh yes, they publish a few articles for the sake of their CVs and they may address a few conferences. But when the proverbial hits the fan the so-called experts vanish back into the woodwork.

Oh for some wise leadership from people of integrity and courage! Groups like Rivers SOS have never received any advice or support from the academics and bureaucrats, nor have any of them ever donated even one dollar towards our efforts. To find out something of what goes on behind the scenes we have to dig into our own pockets to fund Freedom of Information searches - when these people should be letting the public know of a number of scandals concerning our rivers and aquifers.

No, the locals and communities who are actually living with the ongoing and escalating damage to the water resources of NSW have to fight on alone and unaided by any of these well-paid "experts." You wonder how they sleep at night. You wonder what sort of society we really are with Coca-cola sucking our aquifers dry and the big mining companies devastating our major rivers.