Canberra has some real reasons to have buy-in on the Murray-Darling debate, and not only because it is the largest city, by far, in the Murray-Darling Basin. If the cuts in water usage in the ACT were locked in, then Canberrans could face permanent stage 3 water restrictions.

 

That would mean no drip irrigation, no car washing and brown parks and gardens. Such restrictions are necessary during a drought. But Canberra looks so much greener now since it has rained. It would be a shame for it to be made permanently brown from overly stringent and hasty restrictions on water use.

 

Canberrans are at this moment spending $360 million on upgrading the Cotter Dam, which is in the Basin system. It is critical that the ACT can actually access this water to justify such an investment. This may not be the case under the current Plan, the water may be stored but it may not be used beyond your extraction limit.

 

At the moment, under the Murray-Darling Basin Cap, Canberra can take a net 40 GL from the Basin to meet its community needs. The Plan released a few weeks ago could reduce this to 21 GL, levels of extraction that Canberra has achieved during Stage 3 water restrictions. But these reductions were never meant to be permanent.

 

As the National Water Commission has stated, water restrictions should remain a temporary response to ease a drought, they should not be confused with "wise water use".

 

If we are looking for a new, and I have grown to detest this term, “paradigm” then surely we could at some point soon come to an agreement on the construction of a major new water storage to deliver environmental requirements for key environmental assets so that more of the water that was in dams for your use and your food can be used by you.

 

Wouldn’t it be a breath of fresh air to have the two sides of the political debate agree on the bleeding obvious that we should turn our attention to how we can deliver more water into the system?

 

In Japan they move water between the main islands, in the United States they move water between catchments and in the mountains behind Canberra, when we were more enterprising and industrious, we built one of the greatest engineering feats of our time when we constructed The Snowy Mountains Scheme.     

 

Unfortunately, as soon as you mention the word “dam” it becomes a wonderful wedge issue as the undoubted environmental issues that come with storing water stir up easy emotions that can grow to almost a religious fervour pitch by those who genuinely believe the landscape should remain unaffected by our presence.

 

Extreme environmental views are rarely espoused by a person living under a tree, but often by someone typing on an iPad with a mobile phone in their pocket. Let’s be honest, those who apparently hold the strongest environmental views, often reside far from the environmental asset they wish to protect, they are instead in inner-city, temperature-controlled comfort.

 

I have to declare that I have campaigned against one dam. Traveston Dam was an extravagant proposal that was too flat, too porous and had too little water flow. I am for good dams, not any dam.

 

The reality is that the two major political groups are going to have to accept there will always be a fight with the Greens if you wish to build a dam. If there was an easy political decision, it would have already been made.

 

The pragmatism and desire for the nation to feed and clothe itself should be paramount. A KPMG study, commissioned by the Australian Food and Grocery Council, now shows that we are net food and grocery importers.

 

This is absurd. A country that is meant to be the food basket of south-east Asia is relying on south-east Asia more and more to feed it.

 

I think we will have some trouble paying for all of this if the dollar depreciates. Australia has to stop putting caveats, imposts and restrictions on our farmers' capacity to provide cheap, affordable and high-quality food.

 

We must not be lulled into thinking that it is evil to water our parks, gardens and lawns or wash our car. Outside of times of drought, it should be what a modern sophisticated society like ours should be able to do.

 

Isn’t it great it has rained? It will be a shame if you can’t use it.