Pm Pledges Billions To Fix Water

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday January 25, 2007

Phillip Coorey Chief Political Correspondent

JOHN HOWARD will dramatically raise the stakes in the water wars today by announcing billions of dollars in projects and launching a feasibility study into opening up Australia's rain-sodden north to agriculture.

Less than a week after the Labor leader, Kevin Rudd, called for a national summit on water and a streamlining of the management of the resource, the Prime Minister will use his Australia Day address to unveil his multibillion dollar strategy.

Projects will include a $1.5 billion nationwide subsidy scheme to encourage all farmers, particularly irrigators, to be more efficient with the water they use.

Irrigators who installed pipes instead of channels, for example, would receive a dollar from the Government for each dollar they spent on the more efficient infrastructure.

Up to 30 per cent of water taken from river systems is wasted by inefficient irrigation. The project also aims to improve farm productivity.

Another $500 million will be devoted to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of river storage and operations by funding such projects as digging channels to unblock natural chokes in rivers to divert the water for agriculture.

Another $480 million will be dedicated to funding a new division within the Bureau of Meteorology to audit the nation's water capacity and availability.

The new division would act as a national central storage point for data on water and is designed to end the current confusing and unco-ordinated approach.

The $2.48 billion these three projects will cost is all new money and is believed to be only a fraction of the full figure and range of projects Mr Howard will announce today.

The NSW Liberal senator Bill Heffernan, who is a farmer from Junee, will head the taskforce which will investigate agricultural development in the north.

Senator Heffernan is a strident critic of water-hungry cotton and rice farming but an advocate for shifting farmers to the north where rain is plentiful as a way to combat the drought.

The aim of his taskforce, to consist of politicians and experts, will be to identify the capacity of northern Australia to play a larger role in agriculture in future decades.

Mr Howard, who previously has shied away from supporting a Commonwealth takeover of the nation's waterways, will also today address the water governance issue.

The speech will come towards the end of what has been a feverish week in national politics as Mr Howard and Mr Rudd strive for momentum in an election year. As Mr Howard was completing his speech last night, the first election ad appeared on television featuring Mr Rudd spruiking his new agenda of linking education to economic productivity.

Mr Howard reshuffled his ministry on Tuesday and tomorrow he will use a citizenship ceremony in his electorate of Bennelong to make a statement about values.

The water strategy has been devised over the past few months by Mr Howard and will be largely driven by him.

His new Environment and Water Resources Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, will be involved at the nuts-and-bolts level.

Last night, in response to criticism from the states that Commonwealth funding for local water projects was too slow in coming, Mr Howard also approved $220 million for a handful of applications.

© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald

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