A major split has opened within the Coalition, after the South Australian Liberals realised it’s the Queensland National Party who pull the strings on the Federal Opposition’s water policy.

Over the weekend, Tony Abbott’s shadow minister for water, Senator Barnaby Joyce, revealed the Coalition’s new water policy in The Advertiser.

He made it clear that the Federal Opposition is just not interested in saving the rivers of the Murray Darling Basin:

We can move the water from where it is to where it is not, which requires massive infrastructure to take the water from the north and move it into the Murray Darling Basin or, alternatively, we can give the motivation for the people to move to where the water is.

Coalition tensions boiled over on ABC Riverland this morning, with local State Liberal MP, Tim Whetstone saying:

I think it’s just ludicrous that anyone could be thinking that we as South Australia can pack up shop and move up north. It’s not on.

Unfortunately for Mr Whetstone, the SA Liberals have been left high and dry by their Federal colleagues, Minister for Water Senator Penny Wong said.

"The bad news for the SA Liberals is that Tony Abbott has put the Queensland National Party in charge of their water security," Senator Wong said.

"The result is a Federal Opposition that has given up on saving the rivers.

"It’s not enough for Christopher Pyne and Simon Birmingham to hide behind Mr Whetstone.

"South Australians are entitled to wonder why their Federal MPs have not uttered a word of criticism of Senator Joyce’s policy."