WHEN he was an entrepreneurial young Adelaide solicitor in the 1980s, Nick Xenophon was fascinated by World Championship Wrestling.

He spent months tracking down retired greats such as Mario Milano and Killer Karl Kox, interviewing them for a documentary script. The film did not get off the ground but Xenophon, now an independent senator for South Australia, has retained some of the show business tricks of his old idols.

While he has extracted $900 million for the Murray River, the half-nelson inflicted on the Federal Government over its economic stimulus package was largely illusory.

Three concessions bought Xenophon's vote. First, the Government agreed that $500 million it was already planning to spend over four years buying water entitlements from irrigators would be brought forward by a year.

The Government had already offered to bring forward $400 million. Xenophon secured another $100 million.

Secondly, the Government agreed to allocate $200 million from its $12.9 billion Water for the Future plan to initiatives in Murray-Darling municipalities.

Yet it is almost certain at least that amount would have gone to those communities anyway.

Finally, the Government ear-marked $200 million of its $1 billion urban water and desalination plan for stormwater harvesting. That is probably a little more than the Government would have otherwise allocated to stormwater projects.

All this is not nothing. But nor is it the swingeing forearm jolt suggested by the headline $900 million figure.

Spiros Arion, the Golden Greek, would have been proud.


Source : The Sydney Morning Herald