As soon as the laws of financial karma came into play internationally, once fiercely-independent, red-neck banking institutions wasted little time in sidling up to global treasuries, cap in hand, seeking charity – and forgiveness for their previous irresponsible activities. As we all know, the cost of such clemency will be borne by the tax-paying public.

As the people rallying in large numbers over recent weeks in South Australia are being correctly informed, the root-cause of the problem with the Murray Darling Basin (MDB) is neither drought nor climate change: it is man-made. The MDB is being mismanaged and water has been over-allocated by governments.

The member governments of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) are behaving as if there is no crisis, no drought, no disaster evolving in the Lower Lakes and the Coorong and it is business as usual.

Those 18th Century heroes of the Enlightenment, the vanguard exponents of our notions of reason and empiricism, the natural philosophers, spoke of the "economy" of the various species they observed and recorded. Whether this habit reflected a deep understanding of the workings of nature or was just a quaint turn of phrase, it remains an entirely apt perspective of the natural world.