Illegal water diverting is terrorism ?  

The ABC has a report on competition for scarce water resources in the Murray-Darling Basin, with Queensland being accused of taking more water than it is entitled to - Paroo satellite snaps anger Murray-Darling farmers.

New satellite images show big storage dams and water diversions along the Murray-Darling Basin's last free-flowing river, the Paroo, in apparent breach of a moratorium designed to save the waterway. The images indicate a breach of a five-year-old agreement with the New South Wales and Queensland governments, which was supposed to halt future development on the Paroo.

Farmers are angry and want the Commonwealth to intervene. The Paroo stretches 600 kilometres from Queensland across to New South Wales. The 2001 moratorium included a specific ban on the building of water diversions and dams and was hailed as a deal to protect the dying Murray-Darling basin.

South Australian Premier Mike Rann says the diversion of water from the Paroo River in Queensland is an act of terrorism during a water crisis. The river runs from south-west Queensland to north-western New South Wales.

In 2003 the two states agreed to protect it from dams, weirs and irrigators but satellite images of the river show 10 kilometres of channels and a dam have been built. Mr Rann has described it as a criminal act. "That is an act of terrorism against the nation, it's terrorism from within during a water crisis," he said.