The penny has dropped, however, and it has been left up to individuals and irrigator groups such as SpeakUp4Water to take up the fight. Darren DeBortoli, a winemaker/businessman from Griffith, has been tireless in prosecuting a case against the South Australian government.

For years, we mere mortals believed that sufficient flows were required down the Murray to keep the mouth to the sea open. Now, due to the construction of barrages ostensibly to hold back seawater from freshwater lakes, they are in effect being used to dam Murray water.

As DeBortoli points out, we have been taken for a ride. The water, in part, is wanted for lifestyle to ensure boating activities.

At the same time, water that would flow into the associated Coorong is being drained direct to the sea.

Those from the recreational sector seem not care about parched paddocks and crippling losses of farm income. The Murray can be running a banker and not one drop is accessible for agriculture.

The circus around $1 a litre milk continues. Federal Minister David Littleproud has urged people not to buy milk from Aldi or Coles, as they will not pass on a 10-cent levy to dairy farmers .

Of course, he is speaking to an audience of New South Wales and Queensland producers, and the broader consumer audience. Does he tell you that all the supermarkets are selling UHT milk at a dollar a litre?

This just may be the way we go: in France, UHT milk supplies most of the market.

Note that Mr Littleproud will not be coming to Victoria talk to dairy farmers, and it is a fair bet that he will only be stumping around Queensland before the federal election.

Anyhow, it is a load of rot and impossible to implement, particularly where the market is influenced by export values.