KEY POINTS:
CANBERRA - Prime Minister John Howard has moved dramatically to shore up his environmental credentials with a massive A$10 billion ($11.1 billion) plan to develop and manage water resources in the planet's driest inhabited continent.
Smarting under increasing criticism of his policies on climate change and water supplies, Howard yesterday unveiled a vision for "radical and permanent" change to the nation's present, unsustainable, overuse of water.
But a central plank of the policy - announced as the Government prepares to seek a fifth term later in the year - may thrust him into an election-year constitutional battle with Labor-controlled states.
Howard intends using federal powers to take control of the mighty Murray-Darling river system from the four eastern-coast states that manage it now.
Although NSW Premier Morris Iemma has backed a national approach to water resources and promised co-operation with Canberra, Victoria is demanding that several key demands be met before it agrees to the plan, South Australia has no confidence in federal control and Queensland Premier Peter Beattie dismissed the plan as an election gimmick.
"This about trying to get re-elected," Beattie said.
"It's not about water and Australians shouldn't be deluded about this."
The Labor premiers had earlier supported a plan for national water authority to initiate reform and end hugely expensive and inefficient duplication by the states and Canberra. Howard dismissed the proposal.
But his grand vision will have electoral appeal in a nation still gripped by one of the worst droughts in history and which has become increasingly alarmed by climate change.
Beyond the controversy of control of the Murray-Darling system, Howard proposes to investigate a shift in new farm production to the north, an audit of the continent's water resources, new controls over water use, and more efficient irrigation.
The plan will also be championed by Malcolm Turnbull, the passionate and talented former investment banker who was this week thrust into Cabinet as minister in charge of a new, supercharged, department of environment and water resources.
Turnbull has said he will take Canberra's proposal to wrest control of the Murray-Darling to the High Court if the states resist the move, with good chance of success despite the states' constitutional powers of water resources within their borders.
The vast network of waterways feeding into the 2600km-long Murray River sustains the bulk of Australian agriculture, most of its major cities and towns, and a large slice of the national economy.
But it now barely flows because of the demands put upon it and is plagued by pollution and salinity.
"We could muddle through as the states have been doing but, frankly, that gets us nowhere," Howard said.
"Without decisive action we face the worst of both worlds - the irrigation sector goes into steady but inevitable decline, while water quality and environmental problems continue to worsen."
Howard's plan promises to pump a massive A$6 billion into the biggest-ever upgrade of the nation's irrigation systems and infrastructure, a further A$1 billion into increasing water efficiency on farms, and A$3 billion to haul back excessive demand on water from the Murray River.
This will include rigid caps on surface and groundwater use.
"The tyranny of incrementalism and the lowest common denominator must end," Howard said.
"The A$10 billion plan I have just outlined will only work if the governance arrangements for the [Murray-Darling] basin are put on a proper national footing. The proposal is conditional on this occurring."
Howard has also allocated A$480 million for a national water audit by the Bureau of Meteorology, and announced plans for a task force to probe new agriculture in the north.
Western Australia developed the huge Ord River irrigation area in the north of the state but, like other attempts in the Northern Territory, ran into huge problems of tropical pests and diseases.
WA Water Resources Minister John Kobelke said only limited types of crops could be grown in the north.
The unlucky country
Lifeblood at trickle
The big dry:The ailing Murray-Darling river system is the lifeblood of eastern Australia but it has been reduced to a relative trickle and is stricken by pollution and salination. The basin accounts for 41 per cent of the nation's agriculture. Much of eastern Australia is in its sixth year of drought and inflows into the 2500km river in 2006 were at 40 per cent of the previous record low, prompting authorities to cut water allocations to farmers.
Seeping away: Also badly needed is a vast upgrade of irrigation infrastructure, much of which is carried in open channels subject to evaporation. About 70 per cent of all water use in Australia is for farm irrigation and up to 30 per cent of water is lost in transport, through leakage, seepage and evaporation.
Water, water nowhere: A search will be made to find and map water resources in the first-ever national audit of the world's driest inhabited continent. While drought has driven the urgency, Australia's normal rainfall patterns are a concern - in most parts there are less than 50 rainfall days a year.
Tackling the problem
Howard's way: The A$10 billion ($11.35 billion) national water management plan involves a federal Government takeover of the river system. The basin is managed by New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland and they will be asked to cede authority.
Stopping the leaks: About A$6 billion has been allocated to seal major delivery channels, improve metering and install drip systems to save 3000 gigalitres of water a year, or 20 per cent of the total used. And A$3 billion will be used to buy back irrigators' water entitlements in the basin.
Looking ahead: Boost water efficiency on farms; financial help to the Bureau of Meteorology to collect national water information; a taskforce to investigate moving farmers to northern Australia where there is more water.
- AAP, REUTERS
