JUGGLING the massive portfolios of water and climate change is too big a task for any federal minister, says PETER HUNT

It's time for Senator Penny Wong to focus on climate change and leave the complexities of water to someone else.

Irrigation industry leaders are rightly angry at the lack of strategy and effort Senator Wong has applied to her Water portfolio.

But is that lack of effort her fault, or is it simply the fault of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in overloading his South Australian senator?

The reality is Senator Wong, as irrigation industry leaders argue, is just one minister trying to manage two of the most critical and complex issues facing Australia.

Compare the resources Penny Wong has on hand to that the Government has thrown at its response to the global financial crisis.

The Federal Government has, arguably, six ministers dealing with the fall-out from the financial crisis.

Irrigators told The Weekly Times they see Senator Wong shoving water to one side every time a climate change issue hits her desk.

It even seems Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is far more concerned about the Government's image on climate change than the water crisis that is crippling our society.

Mr Rudd's decision to appoint Greg Combet as Parliamentary Secretary on Climate Change seems to reflect the PM's concerns.

Yet the water crisis is likely to have a more immediate and devastating impact on Australians than climate change.

The Government made much of its $12.9 billion, 10-year investment in Water for the Future.

But the reality is virtually all that money is being spent on buying and draining water and wealth out of rural communities, with little invested in return.

The Government has committed $5.8 billion of its $12.9 Water for the Future fund to the Sustainable Rural Water Use and Infrastructure program.

Yet virtually none of this $5.8 billion has been allocated.

As one South Australian water trust executive said recently, "that $5.8 billion is evaporating faster than water off the Lower Lakes".

Is it any wonder irrigators are sick of reading the sort of empty claims that keep rolling out of Senator Wong's office?

Lines such as Penny Wong's statement on March 1 that: "The Rudd Government has set out a $12.9 billion plan, Water for the Future, to help secure a future for agriculture and irrigation communities in the Basin while also returning water to rivers and wetlands.".

Victorian Farmers Federation water council chairman Richard Anderson has been pleading with the Victorian and Federal Government's to put $20 million into a pilot on-farm water savings program.

Yet Senator Wong seems indifferent to the call, turning her attention instead to what's happening off Australia's shores.

This week, Senator Wong announced $20 million towards helping Pacific islanders "research" the impact of climate change on their nations.

Yet the most the minister could rustle up this month under her On-Farm Irrigation Efficiency (Pilot Projects) Program was $5.6 million for Murray Darling Basin irrigators.

This pitiful sum was carved up between two NSW catchment management authorities and Murray Irrigation Limited.

MIL's share of "up to $1.3 million" was for projects that delivered a grand total of 566 megalitres. That's an investment of $2300 a megalitre.

The rest of the money was to be spent on saving 1400 megalitres on the Border-Gwydir and Lachlan River systems.

In the meantime, Senator Wong and Kevin Rudd have been happy to broker a deal with South Australian independent senator Nick Xenophon to bring forward $500 million of spending under its $3.1 billion water-purchasing program.

That means the Federal Government has $442.8 million to spend on buying irrigators' water this financial year, then $582.7 million in 2009-10 and $442.8 million in 2010-11.

So what is the Government spending on structural adjustment to help irrigation communities deal with this loss?

What is the real cost to Australia of draining communities of this water?

There are no answers to these questions, because no one has bothered doing the analysis.

Is it any wonder irrigators are sick of hearing Senator Wong's claiming her Government is investing in their future.

At then end of the day, what matters is not the 10-year commitment but what is being spent today.

  • Peter Hunt is a senior Weekly Times reporter.