REALITY has dawned for a Labor party that has played politics with the Murray-Darling Basin for the past three years.
A report that should have been released before the election, could have been released during the election and was promised to be released just after the election has finally, and in some respects fatally, been dropped on regional Australia.
We no longer have to scratch our heads and wonder why Labor took so long to release this plan. It is economically and socially dangerous.
Three years ago, the Coalition left Labor $10 billion to help the basin adjust to less water. The Coalition's plan was to prioritise water savings so that we could save water for the environment and for farmers.
Only after we had made the basin efficient and viable would we implement targeted buybacks and a consultative approach in developing a sustainable cap on diversions.
Labor got it the wrong way around. It has spent $1.5bn buying back water while spending less than $400 million on investment in water-saving technologies.
And most of that has been spent on studies. The result has been voluminous amounts of unread paper but no return of water. Less than 10 per cent of the water returned to the environment has come from direct investments.
The Coalition left Labor $400m to re-engineer the Menindee Lakes. Labor hasn't turned a sod. Even God could not wait for Labor; the lakes are full again after this year's rains, limiting the capacity to now deliver the savings.
It took 18 months just to set up the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, and now it is shocked at the response from people who are sick and tired of the uncertainty hanging over their future livelihoods.
So Labor has botched another policy. Anyone surprised?
When something needs the hard work of real planning and forethought Labor always fails. Labor always oversimplifies, under-plans and over-reaches.
If it can't install ceiling insulation, why do we think it can deliver a future for a basin that is home to two million Australians?
People in the cities may be shocked at the frustrated reaction but this has been building for some time.
It was building when then climate change and water minister Penny Wong lectured the basin, only a matter of months ago, that "there will be pain" without a hint of compassion or consideration for the upheaval she was about to unleash.
It was building when the government spent more time during the election campaign attacking me than it did developing a water policy. Labor did not issue a water policy, it issued three press releases.
It was building when the Labor government, in one of these election statements, committed to implement the plan the authority came up with.
This made a sham of the so-called consultation process. What is the use of consultation if the government has already made up its mind?
This is definitely Labor's plan. I don't know whether Tony Burke or Simon Crean is the minister now, but I will work on the premise that Burke still is. The day after the plan was released he recommitted to Labor's election promise to implement the plan. He cannot now say, as he tried to the other day: "It's not my plan."
There can be no doubt, as it stands, this is the Gillard-Burke-whoever comes next plan.
Now Burke and Crean are trying to abscond from the responsibilities of government that they obtained only a month ago. Under the Water Act, the minister has the final say on this plan, so Burke has it in his power to take this plan off the table.
Instead, he is flicking it to a parliamentary inquiry.
I asked for an inquiry into the social and economic implications of this plan, so I support the inquiry we now have.
But this cannot just be another tactic to delay and distract. The inquiry does not report until after the authority releases its draft plan. If this inquiry is to be taken seriously, it should have the ability to affect the draft.
Otherwise it's like getting the valuation on the house you want to buy after the auction.
So, I call on the government to reassure communities that it will not implement a plan that threatens their survival.
Only the government can do this. I thought Labor was in government. Perhaps I got the election result wrong.