THE Federal Opposition has abandoned its attempt to plug the controversial north-south pipeline.
A fortnight of political brinkmanship was due to end yesterday with the Senate finally passing the Government's Bill conferring state powers over the Murray Darling Basin's flows to the Commonwealth.
The Opposition, Greens and Independent senators tried to tack amendments blocking the north-south pipeline onto the Government's Bill.
However, on Monday Labor used its numbers in the Lower House to defeat the amendments and sent the Bill back to the Senate.
By yesterday, the Opposition said it would back down, rather than risk further delaying the Bill or risking it being defeated.
The decision reflects comments made by Opposition Environment spokesman Greg Hunt to The Weekly Times a fortnight ago in which he stated the Coalition would not delay the Bill if the Rudd Government rejected his amendments.
The Coalition amendments called for a ban on new diversions of water out of the Murray Darling Basin.
The amendment may have prevented the Victorian Government building its north-south pipeline to carry up to 75,000 megalitres out of the basin to Melbourne every year.
However, it was more likely that Victoria would simply abandon the whole agreement, which relies on a transfer of powers backed by state legislation.
Federal Water Minister Penny Wong has repeatedly accused the Coalition of simply playing political games with the amendments.
However, Mr Hunt has used the amendments to link the Rudd Government to the pipeline.
"From this moment forward (Prime Minister) Kevin Rudd owns the north-south pipeline," Mr Hunt said.
"He has given it a green light, he has overridden the Senate."
The Coalition amendments would have risked blocking diversions of water from the basin to the Snowy River and future works to divert water to Adelaide and Ballarat.
