The North-South Pipeline, the grandiose and poorly-researched project, championed by Victorian Premier Brumby and his water minister, Tim Holding, is proving to be as inefficient as feared, producing 24 billion litres of water for metropolitan Melbourne at a cost of around $1 billion dollars.

Temporary Murray Darling water is currently available to some prospective purchasers for as little as $50 per million litres. Therefore, with their well-known penchant for exercising political muscle, Mssrs Brumby and Holding could feasibly acquire 24 billion litres today for around $1.2 MILLION: yes, one thousandth of the price their rightly criticised pipeline - give or take a few hundred million dollars . . . 

This ridiculous scenario brings into sharp focus the absolute volatility of the equally flawed water market that our governments are in the process of establishing; extreme variability which will attract hit and run speculation and make it virtually impossible to plan for the security of public and environmental water supplies.