Australia can best be considered as being two separate countries.

One, east and south of the Great Dividing Range, has a good rainfall and a dense population.

North and west is another country, drier, hotter and sparsely populated.

Much of the dry area is fertile and — with irrigation — could support profitable primary industries and a growing population.

But big business, and our political parties, want Australia’s people crammed into big cities in the higher rainfall regions.

* * *

So, irrigation is reduced stepwise, until farmers walk off the land and the townships they support become ghost towns (or tourist centres — much the same thing).

If that doesn’t destroy rural Australia quickly enough, another (even more outrageous) strategy could be to pipe water AWAY FROM the dry parts into higher rainfall regions.

If that notion had been suggested to the Monty Python Show scriptwriters, they’d have shaken their heads saying, “Too bizarre by far . . . there are limits to what even crazy people will watch.”

Anyway, water is, this day, being pumped out of the Goulburn River in Victoria’s drier north and into Melbourne’s Sugarloaf Reservoir in the wetter south . . . .

* * *

Once upon a time, there existed an Australian Country Party which would have protested against this — and at least extracted some concessions.

But that party self-destructed. Under its new “Nationals” name-tag, it became just one more party favouring “free trade” and, with it, rural decline.

The Greens are worse.

They must keep city-dwellers happy — only city-dwellers will swallow environment-worship of the sentimental, almost pantheistic variety the Greens peddle . . . .

Greenies will always find a threatened species of bird or frog or something to declare at risk so as to stop any venture that looks like promoting decentralised manufacturing and/or agricultural industry.

* * *

The environment does deserve consideration, of course — but there needs to be some sort of balance.

Have you ever heard a politician say anything balanced about the water issue?

It may have happened, but a lot of us missed it.

Perhaps our now-famous “independents” might offer a rational approach. Perhaps, also, the DLP.

Time will tell.