"Federal Cabinet today moved a step closer to a major overhaul of the nation's water policies. Irrigation could be cut and water rights suspended" Nov 2002. Mark Vaille, Lateline.

The cost of doing nothing was estimated at $3.5 billion per year. So what did our government do? Nothing.

So $14 billion later they start a scare campaign to tell us what they knew in 2002.

Why didn't it happen? Ask Peter Costello.

steve,
Are you sure Mark Vaile said that or are you quoting the headline and attibuting it to him?

The $3.5 billion/year figure came from the reporter, what is this based on?

What did/do you expect the Govt to do and how would the current situation be different?

I suggest you read my blog at http://au.blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-ijpxwMQ4dbXm0BMADq1lv8AYHknTV_QH. and my website http://www.schorel-hlavka.com and you may just realise that the federal government has absolutely no legislative power to deny anyone their water allocation rights. All it can do, within the frame work of section 100 of the Constitution is to determine what is “reasonable use” for farmers/irrigators.

This post does not allow me to set it all out in details, hence check out my blog.

Malcolm Turnbull on 25-1-2007 made known that irrigators should be allowed to earn an income in trading in water, while now he somehow wants to rob them of any allocation, after some States agree to assign legislative powers to the Commonwealth.
Lets be realistic that the Federal Government can’t even handle its existing powers, as despite Section 100 of the Constitution it failed since federation to appropriately legislate against over allocation. Now, being power hungry and desiring to centralise all powers in Canberra they have unduly manufactured this water crisis by not taking appropriate action more then a decade ago.
Why should farmers/irrigators become bankrupt where they did nothing wrong, by an unconstitutional denial of water allocation? Let the darn politicians suffer the consequences of their own mismanagement!
John Howard is on the bandwagon of “economical management” well to me it is “economical mismanagement” where farmers/irrigators now are suffering because he couldn’t bother since 1996 to ensure there were appropriate provisions in place to avoid over allocation of water.
As the Framers of the Constitution made clear, WATER belongs to no one, and it belongs to everyone. They opposed federal powers to legislate as they made clear the access to water control property values!
States wanting to hand over legislative powers ignore that ultimately people in their States are to pay for the money they think they are getting from the Commonwealth. So it is plain stupid then to give away legislative powers, and unconstitutional without the express consent of the electors.