Page 2665 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 25 August 1993
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Water Supply - Sodium Metabisulphite
MR KAINE: Madam Speaker, I have a question for Mr Connolly, the Minister for Urban Services. Over the weekend, while reading the Canberra Times, I noticed a call from ACT Electricity and Water for tenders for a substance called sodium metabisulphite, which I think it is intended be put in our water supply. This substance has allergenic properties and is used in wine to stop bacteria growth. In view of the fact that it is an allergenic product and I have not previously been aware of its existence in ACT water, I ask: Is this a new substance that is being put in? If not, how long has it been in our water? What quantities are included in our water supply? Is there any medical evidence of any adverse consequences of putting this substance in our water supply?
MR CONNOLLY: Madam Speaker, I think Mr Kaine is right. It is the chemical that is generally used as a wine preservative. I am unaware of any proposal to change the water supply to a wine supply. I will take the question on notice and get back to Mr Kaine as soon as I possibly can.
Burglary
MRS GRASSBY: Madam Speaker, my question is directed to the Attorney-General. What action, if any, are the police taking in relation to the problem of burglaries in Canberra?
Mr De Domenico: You are catching them.
MR CONNOLLY: You are dead right, Mr De Domenico. I am glad that this question has been asked. Earlier this year when the Opposition was in one of its regular moods of high agitation about law and order, there were all sorts of demands that I say what we were doing about burglary. I was somewhat constrained at the time because police operations were ongoing on a new style of dealing with burglary and I was not prepared to possibly prejudice those operations by outlining them.
Now I can indicate to the Assembly some very successful results that the police have had since March, when we went from the normal reactive style of policing whereby a police officer fronts up and essentially acts as a clerk, records what has been stolen and goes back to the station and files the report. The police have been moving away from what the police association refers to as clerical-style policing to a more proactive style of policing in relation to burglaries. That has involved reallocation of resources from that reactive style of policing, which has meant on some occasions somewhat of a delay when officers have not recorded the details as quickly as they otherwise would. Instead, we have had police out and about in the streets - sometimes in police cars, sometimes in all sorts of battered old cars that you would never suspect had anything to do with the police - targeting burglaries in each of the regions.
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