Murray plan a test of the nation: SA

Overturning a century of greed to better manage the Murray-Darling will be a test of
the nation, South Australian Premier Mike Rann says.
Mr Rann has welcomed the proposed Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) plan that
drew a mixed reaction in Australia's driest state, with the Greens also praising it
just as the Liberals and Senator Nick Xenaphon insisted it "dudded" SA.
The premier said everyone knew that one day the massive over-allocations of water
along the rivers had to be fixed.
"I have no doubt that we will hear screams from cotton growers and rice farmers up
north, but they have been part of the problem," Mr Rann told AAP on Friday.
"The fact of the matter is: someone has to bite the bullet.
"For 100 years this river system has been run in the most irresponsible way based on
the lowest common denominator of states vetoing other states because of greed and
sectional interest.
"This is really a test of us as a nation. It is about give and take. It is about all
of us having to cut our cloth to make sure that the river is run better."
However, the premier disagrees with the amount of recognition given in the plan to
water saving initiatives that, unlike in other states, SA farmers have embraced from
the late 1960s and 1970s.
The proposal would introduce across the board cuts to SA water entitlements of
between 26 and 35 per cent and national cuts of 27-37 per cent.
Mr Rann intends to lobby so the "good behaviour" of SA irrigators is recognised in
the next iteration of the plan.
Greens senator Sarah Hansen-Young welcomed the desperately-needed reforms but says
the nation can't afford to have the recommendations watered down.
"If we want to save the river, this is what we have to do - otherwise everyone
loses," she said.
Liberals Water Security spokesman Mitch Williams and SA independent Senator Nick
Xenophon disagree.
Senator Xenaphon says SA is being treated as a poor cousin under the plan.
"For the last 40 years, SA farmers have spent many millions of their own dollars
making their farms the most efficient in the country.
"Now, the authority wants to turn around and say: 'Thanks for saving all that water,
now we need you lose as much as those guys in the eastern states that never bothered
to save a drop'.
"It is unfair and unacceptable and I call on Premier Mike Rann and all South
Australian politicians, state and federal, to refuse this dud deal."
Mr Williams also said SA had been "dudded".
"Mike Rann stands condemned ... of failing to ensure that the work that has been
done by South Australian irrigators over 40 years has not been recognised in their
proposal."