NSW is the chief beneficiary of a $4.7 billion federal spending package announced yesterday to boost road, rail and education infrastructure, as well as give business more than $1.6 billion in tax breaks to encourage investment during the economic downturn.

Dr Dennis Jensen BAppSc (RMIT), MSc (Melb), PhD (Monash) is the only member of the Australian Parliament with a PhD in a science discipline.

Yesterday Dr Jensen suggested in the Australian Parliament that many of the current problems facing the Murray Darling Basin are the result of low runoff as a consequence of changed land management practices (including more plantations in the top of catchments), catchment-wide drainage management plans (place in the 1980s and 1990s to lower water tables) and more efficient water use (resulting in less leakage).