In fairness to the federal government, water minister David Littleproud's announcement on Wednesday the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission probe would look into the many players in the basin's $2 billion water market was a pre-election commitment.

Transparency and efficiency are central to the inquiry which will also examine carryover water - water that can be held over from one season to the next - as well as the efficiency of water movement, and the effect speculators have on the market.

"We are going to ask the ACCC get under the bonnet of this market to ensure that farming families do get a fair crack," Mr Littleproud said.

But unless there is meaningful action the cynics will dismiss the exercise as nothing more than tyre kicking at an issue which is extraordinarily complex.

In simplistic terms, all the grief, particularly in communities such as Barooga, Finley and Deniliquin, would go a long way towards being rectified with significant rainfall in the key places.

Lake Hume is filling presently, but only due to the large quantities of water coming from Dartmouth to meet downstream needs, including South Australia.

It is a source of continual frustration and angst for southern basin farmers who are forced to watch water flow past their properties knowing they can't access it for the second year in a row.

In a normal year, there would also be water flowing down the Darling River to meet those downstream requirements.

The bulk of the water trading takes place in the southern basin and irrigators continually argue non-farming speculators have driven up the price of water and put it out of reach of those who require the precious resource the most.

The ACCC will release an interim report in May next year and final findings won't be handed down until November 2020.

But for some they can't wait that long for an answer.