Page 3388 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 17 September 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
So, the Labor Government's Bill is not - it must be stressed - a Bill about revenue; it is a Bill about reducing consumption. This was acknowledged by Mr Moore, Mr Jensen and Mr Duby; but the Liberals wanted to talk about corporatisation. Robyn Nolan did mention conservation measures, but other members of the Liberal Party seemed to focus solely on corporatisation. The reason the Bill is necessary is that we have, for many years, worked on the assumption that water was plentiful and unlimited in the capital territory. It is not. If we do not do something to modify our consumption of water, we will run out; we will need a new dam within the decade. That will present two challenges to the Territory, and the first is financial. We would have to borrow, on current dollars, at least $100m to build a dam. That would add massively to the cost of water because it would be passed on to consumers by way of interest.
The other fundamental problem is that the ACT, through the far-sighted measures of successive Federal governments and Territory governments, when you move out of the urban areas, is essentially national park. Namadgi is our pride and joy in this Territory. We are in a remarkable situation that so much of our land area is national park. A new dam, almost by definition, would have to be put somewhere in that national park area and I can just see the reaction of the Canberra community, justifiably, if an irresponsible Assembly in this generation refused to take a sensible conservation measure and so forced upon future generations the appalling decision of having to put another dam in the Namadgi National Park.
So, there is no argument. The conservation measure is necessary, it is essential, and it is sensible to phase it in to make it clear that it is not a revenue measure.
Mr Jensen: They did it in Newcastle.
MR CONNOLLY: Mr Jensen says that it has been done in other areas; you can reduce water consumption. Clearly, it can be done. He indicated that there is a need for the Government to take some action on energy conservation. I hope Mr Jensen has got already to page 68 of Budget Paper No. 2 where he will see the energy management program initiative that is being undertaken by Urban Services to move in this direction. It is clear that this is an issue that governments are looking at.
Mr Wood's area, of course, is responsible for turning the sprinklers on and off. Mr Jensen indicated that there is a problem when it rains and the sprinklers are on. I was woken up last night with a bit of a thunderstorm at about 3 o'clock in the morning and I could hear it starting to rain. I thought of Mr Wood who, no doubt, at the time was springing from his bed and running around the Territory turning off the sprinklers.
Mr Humphries: Dressing first.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .