The lack of precision that has attended a project of the magnitude of the FBMP and the willingness to use public monies to fund elaborate engineering projects to ‘put water to better use’ is reminiscent of an earlier era of water policy in Australia (see, for instance, Watson 2007). During this earlier phase, water resources were viewed as a resource to be harnessed in order to foster growth — firstly at the state level and then, incidentally, at the national level.

Many policy analysts were buoyed by the CoAG reforms which signalled a move to a more rational allocation of water resources and greater concern for the underlying requirements to maintain ecosystem health. There was also evidence of a more integrated consideration of resource management as manifested in the Murray-Darling Basin CAP, for example. Nevertheless, state governments, arguably in an effort to do the best for their constituents, had generally resisted calls for national control of water resources, unless coupled with substantial financial incentives. Decision-making at the state level also encourages excessive investment in local water-saving projects since this maintains the resource, and the benefits that accompany that resource, in a given jurisdiction. This approach was seen as counterproductive and resulting in narrowly defined decision criteria that often privileged particular water users in particular states over basin-wide benefits.

Against this backdrop the expanded role of the Commonwealth in water-resource policy in the last two years was heralded by many as a way of accelerating reform and dealing with inter-state rivalries. After all, a national government should be able to consider issues at a basin scale and establish policies that support optimisation of the resource at that level.

Regrettably, the most recent forays of the national government fall well short of this mark. Moreover, the present enthusiasm for ‘modernising irrigation’ stands to replicate and even exacerbate earlier mistakes. Arguably, these decisions are also illustrative of a gross misunderstanding of the rudimentary theories necessary for making sound policy at a basin scale. As Perry (2007: 368) observes ‘poor theory can lead to ineffective and even counterproductive actions. Many of the problems of water today are due to the implementation of false, erroneous or misapplied concepts of efficiency in water resource policy and management.’ Regrettably, it would appear that national governments drawn into the politically appealing but flawed logic of water-use efficiency are just as capable of presiding over the degradation of the Murray-Darling Basin as are the states.