Government is not the answer!

With the Murray Darling in a rapidly deteriorating condition it seems to me that we have chosen the worst possible path in order to rectify this situation. For decades the Murray Darling has been under the control of a government body and look where we are. Yes there were external circumstances like the drought and increased consumption but it was only logical given the history of Australia and the projected development of the country that we were going to face those problems. What did government do? Almost nothing. When industry and individuals used the water they knew if problems arose the government would bail them out. They knew that they would get subsidies, tax breaks, and various other handouts to save them from going under. So after all these years of government not being able to fix the problem and when public support for a new direction reached it's zenith, what was the solution presented: more government. The idea that by going to a bigger and more centralised version of government to fix a problem created by another government in the first place will not work in my opinion. In areas like health and education it is almost universally accepted that the closer the government to the institution it is controlling the better the results. But even that won't solve our problem. I believe another and perhaps more viable solution is to abolish all government control completely. Or at least reduce the control significantly. For instance; if you allowed segments of the Murray Darling to be bought and owned by industry this could lead to more efficient use of that water. If a simple set of laws were put in place to ensure that the water was being treated just like any other piece of property government would only need to intervene when one user intrudes on another. For example if one of the laws stated that you may use the water you own in any way you wish so long as that usage does not adversely affect other users downstream this would prevent things like pollution. Now before anyone proclaims this to be a disastrous policy let me explain a potential system for the purchasing of water. A possibly very effective system for this task would be a water auction. Industry would have to bid for the right to own the water just like you would buy property. And, the best part, the money raised in the auctions would be distributed equally to the public in the form of dividend checks. Now the efficiency of this system is derived in a simple way. In a water auction, industries would have to bid against other industries for a portion of the basin. The auctions will determine who can use the water and by how much. And since industries will inevitably want to reduce their bidding costs, they’ll search for new ways to reduce their demand for water. I realise perhaps that there could be even more effective ways of dealing with this problem but I would like to at least promote discussion that government may not be in the answer in this case. We cannot afford many more years of government incompetence.