The Federal Government is to take control of Australia's largest river system, the Murray Darling from the NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland Governments.
The take over is one of the most ambitious grabs of power by Canberra since it proposed the GST and confirms the electoral concern over the future of water ahead of this years federal election.
Mr Howard said State governments had to recognise that the "old way" of managing the basin had "reached its use-by date".
"The tyranny of incrementalism and the lowest common denominator must end," Mr Howard told the National Press Club in Canberra.
