So far this month he’s had eggs hurled at him, been called a Nazi, and been given the silent treatment over one water project or another across the state.

Closer to home, he’s been under the pump from Plug the Pipe protesters for months over the Government’s controversial $750 million north-south pipeline project, designed to deliver 75 billion litres of drinking water to Melbourne through a pipe linking the Goulburn River to the Sugarloaf Reservoir.

Yesterday things turned ugly for the Minister when a farmer, protesting against the pipeline, was arrested and dragged off her land as she tried to block water officials from gaining access to her family farm in Yea.

What a PR disaster.

Then things went from bad to worse, when the former Australian of the Year and leading environmentalist, Tim Flannery, claimed there was no evidence to support taking water from the already stressed Murray-Darling system to pump to Melbourne. Professor Flannery believes more attention should be given to replacing coal-fired power with cleaner energy, which he said would ultimately yield more water.

To cap the day off, it was revealed the chairman of Goulburn Valley Water was being investigated over irregular travel expense claims.

This forced Mr Holding’s department to issue a statement that the reappointment of Don Cummins, chairman of the authority and a board member of the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority, will be delayed until the investigation concludes.

Maybe today will be a better one. Maybe it will rain - or even pour.

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