Only Labor can end the blame game, or so Kevin Rudd claimed during the campaign. He had to. He had to neutralise the threat of wall to wall Labor governments. John Howard had different priorities. He had to make the Labor state administrations look difficult. Like on water.

Water was supposed to be the issue that would let John Howard seize control of the agenda. It would let him seize control of the environmental agenda, reassert his leadership credentials and expose the neophyte Labor leader for the pretender.

At the beginning of February Howard convened a meeting of the premiers to discuss his National Plan for Water Security. Shortly before parliament resumed he announced the “biggest environmental package in memory”, the $10 billion Murray Darling rescue plan. It didn’t work. It was discovered that the package had been largely cooked up in the PM’s office. It was revealed that Treasury hadn’t been involved.

The states got stroppy, too – Victoria in particular. The then premier, Steve Bracks, had plenty to say, but public debate on the issue seemed to fade away after John Brumby took over as Premier at the end of July. Everyone else had agreed. Crikey understands that as the year proceeded, the Commonwealth and the Victorian governments agreed verbally on the Murray Darling plan.

A draft agreement was prepared in Canberra and approved by Melbourne. Then, to the Victorians great surprise, Howard changed his mind and refused to sign.

Howard’s political priorities had changed. The big spending announcements hadn’t worked. He now had to prove that Labor meant danger. He had to highlight the danger of wall to wall Labor governments. Signing a deal with four Labor states and the Labor government of the ACT would make things look too harmonious. 

Brumby had a spit on the subject after the federal election.

“Mr Howard didn’t want a solution because by that stage the Liberal Party’s pollster Crosby/Textor told him that he had to go to war with the states to have any chance of winning a federal election,” the said.

He also warned that he would not be pressured into ceding Victoria’s constitutional powers over the river by the new Labor Federal Government.

This all means, however, that there is a Murray-Darling plan already approved by the Commonwealth, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and the ACT ready to go. Agreement would certainly play well, and all this needs is to have the name of the new minister, Penny Wong, added.

Unless, of course, the PM is going to seize this one – to prove that only Labor can end the blame game.