Wagga Liberals might like to step back from the brink of running an independent Liberal at the state election (Wagga Liberal head quits, January 16) and weigh up all of the possible outcomes.

1) Wagga Libs do nothing in 2019: Joe McGirr has done nothing to alienate the swathe of voters who elected him only a few sleeps ago and while his re-election is no foregone conclusion, it would surprise no-one. This result would be good for the Liberals who could then legitimately run their own horse in another three years or so.

2) If an Independent Lib runs this year, let’s face it, only the biggest mug punter of all time would really back it in for a win. But most of their preferences will flow to the Nationals candidate. This could cause the very outcome that Wagga Liberals fear the most – a Nationals win that would destroy the need for a Liberal Party in Wagga.

3) Disenchanted local Libs support Joe McGirr. This, as for 1), ensures a temporary loss but allows the party to recontest the seat next time.

Only either doing nothing or supporting Dr McGirr is in the interest of the Wagga Liberal supporters. Running their own candidate (alternative 2 above) might supply some fleeting sense of Pyrrhic moral high ground but would be catastrophic in the long run.

There has been much debate about the state of the Darling-Murray River system and the debacle of who/what is responsible for the current crisis of blue-green algae and the death of hundreds of fish.

Drought, over and possibly illegal irrigation and poor management of the rivers by the NSW and federal government are major factors impacting on the rivers and their tributaries. Naturally, politicians blame it all on the drought and that it has nothing to do with the over use of water irrigation, especially by massive cotton farms on the upper reaches of the Darling River, that extracts so much water that it restricts river down flow.

For five decades, I have traveled by car from the ACT and NSW to/from SA and in the 1960s, travelling the Narrandera, Hay, Euston, Balranald plains was quite boring as all there was to see was salt bush, emus and kangaroos with some open irrigation trenches.

Then in the late 1970s, it all started to change with overhead crop irrigation, especially corn. Now there’s nothing but cotton farming as far as the eyes can see but just what is hidden behind the high road side banks that have been built is unknown. I suspect it’s the walls of large dams drawing on the Darling-Murray rivers.

So, the whole Darling-Murray rivers and their tributaries are being completely drained for irrigation and we have yet to see what the eventual impact will be downstream for the Murray River and SA generally.