He visited South Australia last week as part of his national listening tour.

"Dairyfarmers and people on the lower lakes – who have spent generations creating wealth in South Australia and Australia – need our help and they need a lifeline," he said. The time frame was too long for the recent Council of Australian Governments' $10 billion National Plan for Water Security to be put into action.

"We've got more than a decade before the current arrangements for the Victorian irrigators are actually completed," Dr Nelson said.

"I think we've still got too much risk of state parochialism overcoming common sense."

South Australian Murray Irrigators chairman Tim Whetstone said long-winded timeframes for action outlined in the plan ignored the urgency surrounding the poor health of the river associated with low inflows and upstream irrigation.