Why not ask Peter Andrews, author of 'Back from the Brink', for advice? He has demonstrated clearly how to manage water in the Australian landscape. Why doesn't The Land support his research? Develop an action plan and follow through the same way he did. Strange how there's always enough funding for committees that achieve nothing but never enough dollars available to see a worthwhile plan through to a successful outcome. Political opportunism is the greatest blight on the landscape. Is it possible to work a-politically, for the good of the land?

Why not ask Peter Andrews, author of 'Back from the Brink', for advice? He has demonstrated clearly how to manage water in the Australian landscape.

Why doesnt The Land support his research? Develop an action plan and follow through the same way he did. Strange how there's always enough funding for committees that achieve nothing but never enough dollars available to see a worthwhile plan through to a successful outcome.

Political opportunism is the greatest blight on the landscape. Is it possible to work a-politically, for the good of the land?

As the main problem affecting restricted water supply is the drought it is obvious that people will be looking over the borders where they see excess water in other states going down the rivers and into the environment. But they are forgetting the importantance of this event. As the demand placed on reduced water supply is not only greater for agricultural production to feed the population growth in the city and urban areas of the southern states, it is also goes to general household practices such as bathing, washing, gardening, and washing the car, all of which in the past decades have been done in an unmanaged practice. We only see restrictions in place when water is scarce in the drought events of reduced rainfall to catchments.

As it appears to be the development in those areas which are placing the demand on stressed water supply by population expansions the real contributor is population growth and density. If we go down the path of piping water down to the Paroo which will fix the current events and restore environmental flows through to the southern reaches of the Murray, it will have the potential to inflect the same outcopmes in the north.

Once the population sees that there is restoration of flows and water seems to be in abundance they will go back to the wasteful practices of the past an dwe will see development and expansion in these regions at the expense of the already disadvantaged northern regions.

My sugestion to Barny is that his focus should be on moving the people to where the water is and the best stradegy for the the federal and state governments would be to use the money the get from mining royalties taxes and the like which are mostly generated in the northern regions of australia to develop infastructure to atract population movement northward.

If a farmer has half his allocation he can only produce half his potential.

We need to apply the same principal to the population density if the water can only supply a set number in a region then the doors should be closed and ther need to move on.

So please stop the potential plundering of the north Mr Joyce and do more to attract growth and regional development and diversification and give all Australians the oportunities the cities enjoy.

The engineering cost would be massive and evaporation would take too much water before it filtered down through the system. Why not desalinate water for Adelaide and take them off the user list. Adelaide is not in the Murray-Darling but draws heavily on it. And why is Melbourne looking for Murray-Darling water when it could do likewise?

I live in the Gulf and quite frankly suggestions like this scare the hell out of me.

When politicians use stats like 24pc of Australia's surface water run off ends up in the Gulf, they tend to forget one thing.

It is intended to do so. Nature has done this for thousands of years, it is vital to our environment, our ecosystems, our animals and our livelihood , particularly fishing and beef cattle.

We have seen what happens when you interfere with Nature - the Murray - Darling basin.

'Worried' has a better concept - bring the people to the water.

I dont think Barnaby Joyce can be serious.

We all know that the result of the study will be that it is uneconomic due to engineering costs and high evaporation, let alone the envoronmental impact on the gulf.

The north can make a lot better use of the water it has but the use of the water in the Tully and other northern rivers has enivonmental hand-cuffs.

The northern NSW rivers also have excess water and have the same problems.

Politics prevent the solutions. These resources will only be developed in another 20 years when the arguments become more compelling.

The Murray basin just has to adapt to lower water availablility with climate change.

Water security is vital. The only objection I can see is cost. Yes, it would be prohibitive, but it's a once per century opportunity. Why not extend the proposal to creating a national water grid via underground pipeline to take water from where it is in oversupply to dry areas. This need not be in same direction all the time.

I also agree we need to use the water, which we have more efficiently. Many irrigation channels are open to the sun and air. Covering them over or replacing with pipes reduces evaporation significantly. Similarly with farm dams, where they form a water storage. Per capita, Australia receives more rain than USA. We have enough water, but we don't use it well and it is in oversupply in some places and undersupply in others.

Nature also intended for the Murray/Darling system to run to the sea... no dams or locks upstream.

Who for the past 20 years has copped the ongoing cost of dredging the mouth of the Murray at Goolwa to keep the river open to the sea? South Australia.

Use water more efficiently? How? Where? As Melbourne sets about piping its water from the already stressed Murray system, has anybody had a look at how much high quality water Melbourne dumps daily into the ocean?

There was a time when Melbourne was recognised as a model for the world in water recycling. Then they decided it was cheaper to just dump it in the ocean like the other major cities do.

The first place to look to increase efficiency in water usage is in the major coastal cities.

There is plenty of water in the Murray Darling Basin and it is tied up in the fractured rock system, generally below 200m. There are bores in MDB that flow at up to 250,000L per hour from fractured rock water. This water (as is the case with all water) is created within the Earth and is perpetual. Did all of the water on the Earth fall out of the sky?.No!!!

Oceans that cover 70% of the Earth and up to 6 km deep are continuously replenished through hydrothermal water. Unfortunately, public science does not acknowledge this disconnected, deep fractured rock water and believes all water is contained in the hydrological cycle and this water replenishes all groundwater. When public science gets over this misconception we can supply the MDB enterprises with all the water they need.