John Brumby’s noises yesterday about reforming the water businesses in Melbourne could end the careers of quite a few water authority directors but also deliver some common sense to the water industry.

Three retailers for one city, all Government owned, was a Kennett legacy and has led to nothing but inefficiency and empire building.

The three retail managing directors disagree on most things and building a cohesive water strategy for Melbourne has been hampered by their differing views of the world.

Throw in the politicking of three chairs and their boards and it has been pretty much a mess.

In developing its recent water strategies the Department of Sustainability and Environment has been tearing its collective hair out getting the three retailers and the one wholesaler to agree to one set of forward projection data.

How can you plan for the future in these circumstances?

The obvious solution is one wholesaler and one retailer.

Thwaites never had the bottle (ahem) to make the big structural change in Melbourne – though he had no worries about merging small inefficient regional water authorities to his credit.