PENNY Wong was hugged - even sometimes kissed - by locals when she visited Lake Cargelligo in western NSW this week to announce funding to secure the town's water supply.
For a town with less than 12 months water left, the Minister's gift to them came as a big relief.
But while these country folk were showing obvious signs of elation about what Senator Wong's pot of reform money meant to them, for many farmers across the Murray Darling Basin reform had only brought uncertainty.
This week the National Farmers Federation attacked the Government's soon-to-be-released basin plan, which it said would be "disastrous" for agriculture and was a "train smash waiting to happen".
But in a special interview with Rural Press this week, Senator Wong insisted the reform process was designed to give farmers certainty following too many years of shifting goal posts.
She conceded reform hadn't happened quickly, and on the ground projects had taken time to get rolling.
But she said she wanted this reform to be the one that gave farmers an idea of where their future was.
"I think in some areas it has actually taken longer than I had hoped but given that this is a 10 year program, this is a very significant adjustment and the reality is we've got a very substantial adjustment in the basin to make and we've got to get it right," Senator Wong said.
"We've got to roll out projects, we've got to purchase water to try and soften that transition process for regional communities.
"I do understand people's desires to get these rolling and we share that desire but we also want to make sure it's done properly."
Senator Wong rejects claims that there's been more of a focus on buybacks.
"The fact is that it is harder to get the infrastructure projects out the door because we have to get through the process of getting the guidelines right.
"The on-farm guidelines we consulted with farmer organisations to make sure we got them right.
"We then had to get applications in, and we have to assess them – we're not just going to put money out the door because the Opposition says so.
"I don't think it's right to say we've had more of a focus, it's just a reflection of the reality that infrastructure takes longer to roll out."
She said the Government was doing two things at the same time on water reform – the planning process and the investment process.
"In a perfect world we'd have started this 10 years ago and you'd do one and then the other and that uncertainty would not be such a difficult thing for individual irrigators," she admitted.
"When I got this job we had two choices – do you plan and then adjust, or do you slightly adjust the process while you're also planning, and we took the second option because we thought that was more responsible and being fair on regional communities.
"It means you adjust over a long period; it's not as sharp an adjustment as if you did it over a shorter period.
"The whole reason we're investing now (ahead of the plan) is to be ahead of an adjustment we know we have to make.
"We are trying to give less uncertainty, and I hope the authority can give some indication out in terms of their draft plan this year so people have some clarity about the sorts of decisions they have to make."
Senator Wong said she understood that for some farmers, the goal posts had been changed a lot to try and reform water use in irrigation over more than a decade.
"The whole point of the basin plan is so we don't keep getting the shifting goal posts," she said.
"Particularly in NSW, we've seen a lot of adjustments.
"We need to get a basin plan that is as clear for farmers as it is for the environment."
She also said it was time for the authority developing the plan "to get out" and start explaining the process, including the looming cuts in entitlement, a little better.
Senator Wong also said calls for a transparent list of the environmental assets all the saved water would be protecting were "reasonable".
"Particularly when there were people willing to make adjustments, because they understand we need to change, they need transparency about that."
Senator Wong said she was striving for value for money with the environmental water purchases.
"We've got very strong criteria and guidelines about that. We're purchasing on a no regrets basis.
"Buybacks are an investment in the adjustment.
"We hear often that we are accelerating the buybacks, but if we're purchasing more it's because more farmers want to sell to us.
"We were lobbied very strongly to reopen tenders, so we're not accelerating because it's being driven by us, we're responding to people wanting to exit or reduce their entitlement or allocation, or do things differently.
"Next is getting practical outcomes and I hope I can make some decisions shortly about getting money out on the ground and continuing the process, and about explaining to communities how the reform plan is going to work. It's a big year for water reform this year."
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