The Minister’s arguments are little more than a “parroting” of the Rudd-Wong publicity stunt that only Labor could get an agreement on water, while denigrating the arrangement offered by John Howard.

It is obvious all’s not well with Labor’s water policies and the following are some of the indicators that should be addressed by the Brumby Government.

- At a recent meeting of the Municipal Association of Victoria state council, 70 per cent of councils supported a motion for the Government to re-think the North-South pipeline.

The motion cited inadequate consultation, lack of an environmental audit and no audit of water savings.

Many of the MAV councils backing the motion are Melbourne based, not country.

- A recently completed CSIRO study flags the possible reduced water availability as a result of climate change affecting the Goulburn-Broken River system to be as high as 41 per cent.

This data was not at hand when the “food bowl modernisation” scheme was declared and it is incumbent on the Government to reassess and make public a revised estimate of the available water savings.

Any response that does not declare the original estimate of water savings forming the basis of the modernization plan, as requested by the Auditor-General, would be meaningless.

Leaving the Goulburn River out of the updated Murray-Darling Basin agreement, freeing the city centric Brumby Government to raid its dwindling flows to supply Melbourne, says it all.

Mr Holding, where is the water security for Northern Victoria?

— PETER MURRAY,

Wodonga