His solution to the problem - greater powers to the federal government to administer the basin – saying it is the only way to avoid parochialism from the states' influencing the way water is allocated to the detriment of the system.

Sen Xenophon quoted from the popular Aussie movie ‘The Castle’, set at Bonnie Doon on Lake Eildon, the lake that will have water diverted from use in irrigation projects in the north to help shore up Melbourne’s water supply through the controversial pipeline project to describe the rationale behind Mr Brumby’s plan.

“I had a look up there and there is no water – so what is it going to be pumping – hot air?”

Sen Xenophon painted a bleak picture for south-eastern Australia if the issue of the Murray-Darling basin is not properly addressed.

He said that the problems of a lack of water had been amplified by a lack of trust between the states, the federal government and rural and urban dwellers.

“The rural community does not trust the city dwellers not to try and ‘steal’ the water and city people don’t trust country people to not waste water,” he said.

“It’s a similar story with the state governments – they can’t see beyond their own borders for the good of the country.”

Sen Xenophon said the recent intergovernmental agreement between the states and the federal government was so full of loopholes it was barely worth having.

“There needs to be one system, one set of rules – and the precedent, under the Work Choices decision shows that the Commonwealth has the power to take control of the basin from the individual states.”

However, even though he criticised the agreement between the states, he conceded it was better than nothing, and said he was working on pushing through tougher legislation into the agreement.

Sen Xenophon also claimed the states needed to have better water saving policies in place.

“In my home state of South Australia, there needs to be better recycling of stormwater.

“A decent facility could greatly cut down Adelaide’s reliance on the Murray Darling system.”