The Queensland government yesterday said it would contribute to the buyout of Cubbie Station if the federal government leads the charge.
Many federal Liberals, green groups and western NSW mayors believe the 96,000 hectare Queensland property holds the key to the health of the rivers.
They believe Cubbie, which has the capacity to store more water than Sydney Harbour, should be bought out to free up water for environmental and other uses.
The Greens leader Bob Brown said very tough measures had to be taken "for the sake of delivering water, which is everybody's right.
"Mistakes in the past have to be overcome and Cubbie station is a mistake," he said.
"It's an outcome of greed and poor policy and we have to get into an age of sharing and good policy --- and that includes overcoming past mistakes.
Senator Brown said he knew issues of private ownership came into play, but Cubbie Station never had an exclusive right to the "huge amount of God given rain that's taken out of the system for its own purposes".
The Queensland government four years ago proposed to buy the property, but the plan was scuttled by the Nationals and angry locals who still remain opposed to the sale.
Cubbie's operators say they extract only 0.28 per cent of the
Murray's flow, and the operation provides much-needed jobs in the bush.
Senator Brown said the government was moving way too late to tackle the Murray flow issues.
Crops like cotton and rice were sucking vast amounts of water out of the Murray-Darling system and were inappropriate for the driest continent on the planet.
Prime Minister John Howard has said water trading between NSW,
Victoria and South Australia would be accelerated in a bid to rescue the Murray-Darling river system.
Warnings that the Murray could run dry within months prompted Mr
Howard to call today's snap water summit with state leaders to discuss how to best tackle the crisis.
Senator Brown said the prime minister was putting forward "a whole mixture of ideas".
"He really has not got the solution and nor has he acted quickly enough," he said.
"The prime minister now wants to trade on water, he wants to have water trading, but he doesn't want carbon trading."