The COAG reform council has today slammed Labor's progress on delivering water saving projects in the Murray-Darling Basin.* Only one program out of seventeen is so far complete and only four have agreed to terms.

 The Coalition has been calling for years that infrastructure projects should take priority over buybacks. Tony Burke's promise today to return substantial amounts of water via infrastructure investment is a hollow one.

These findings today are not surprising given that Labor has so far spent more on projects outside the Basin than in the Basin. Only $245 million of the $5.8 billion allocated on infrastructure investments has been spent on projects that actually deliver water into the basin.

Labor are $200 million ahead on buybacks, but $1.25 billion behind on infrastructure investments, compared to their original plan. For every 1 bucket of water the government has saved through investment in infrastructure, they have bought back 24 buckets.

So because of this record, Labor are up to its old tricks. If you can't change the numbers, change the definition and hope no one checks. Tony Burke claimed today that 2.8 actually equals 1.1.

He claims that the amount of water to be returned to the environment should not be equated to 2,800 gigalitres, but to only 1,150 gigalitres because of water already bought and because of infrastructure works agreed to but not yet delivered.

Only yesterday it was revealed that the government had overnight revised its calculations, which means more water will need to be taken from productive use for the same environmental target.** Under these revised figures, the government has spent $4.5 million in the Murrumbidgee on water licences that will deliver no water.***

Tony Burke is taking people in the Murray-Darling for mugs. He has got to start comparing apples with apples not apples with oranges. I reckon, and I might be going out on a limb here, that farmers in the Murray-Darling might know the difference between an apple and an orange.

The COAG reform council has shown Burke's attempted sleight of hand today for what it is, a sneaky attempt at deception not a genuine attempt to build trust.

* http://www.coagreformcouncil.gov.au/reports/water.cfm#pr-2010

** http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2011/11/02/401931_latest-news.html

***  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/murray-darling-crisis/m-did-not-buy-more-water/story-e6frg6px-1226184048986