Premier Beattie,

Lord help us, indeed, when a premier of a state of Australia, 150 years after the introduction of general, free public education, can say what you are saying:

ABC News Online
Thursday, November 2, 2006
Beattie looks for heavenly help for drought-hit farmers
The Premier is urging Queenslanders to get behind a church campaign to pray for rain.
Peter Beattie says he asked the heads of church to consider the move because Queensland is facing its worst drought in 100 years.
...
"The heads of churches, Christian churches throughout the state, have responded enthusiastically to the call to galvanise the powers of prayer at this critical time and I also have written to the leaders of other religious communities asking them to support this effort as well."

Perhaps you are merely pandering to public opinion (i.e. public ignorance), or perhaps you are trying to cover the trail of your own incompetence in preparing better for water crises. But, the question remains: Have you thought to consult studies on the issue of noetic prayer? They do not, to say the least, give your hairbrained current scheme (that is no scheme) much chance of success. Surprise, surprise!

In fact, xome studies have suggested that people who are prayed for actually fare less well than others, but that might have been simply because people who know they're being prayed for anxiously conclude that there must be a very good reason for such an unlikely approach:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=000AFE22-9D1E-146C-9D1E83414B7F0000&colID=5

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032302177.html

Puh-lease!