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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 12 Hansard (13 November) . . Page.. 3492 ..

MRS DUNNE (continuing):

It is a matter of great concern that we are still making the same mistakes with water that we were making with energy-that is, depleting non-renewable supplies and seeking more water instead of efficiently managing demand. Why do we need to use high-quality drinking water, especially in inland Canberra, for every task? We use high-quality drinking water to flush our toilets. We use it to wash our cars and to water our gardens and lawn. We use the highest quality drinking water in Australia, and probably in the world. But we are waking up to that, even if we are doing so slowly. We simply have to change the mindset, and it is not so horrendously difficult to do that.

Enter technology: a whole range of available and emerging technologies is making it possible to radically boost the productivity of water directly where it is used. Efficient technologies that are already commercially available and on the shelf can, in combination, double or even triple water efficiency with no loss of service or convenience.

Canberrans, as residents of the largest inland city and the largest city in the Murray-Darling Basin, have a great responsibility placed on their shoulders. We must be careful custodians of our water; but more than that, we must be prepared to lead the way in innovative water policy. In Canberra we are now facing the prospect of water restrictions this summer-the first such restrictions in 35 years. Quite clearly, our water resources are scarce and finite. Unfortunately, they are often poorly managed by us as end users. But if there is an upside to a drought amid the daily litany of ruin, heartbreak and destruction, it is this: it has raised consciousness and heightened awareness. The fact is that we can all do our bit not only to conserve water but to better manage its use.

In the federal election campaign last year John Howard signalled that water policy was a priority. John Anderson has embraced this idea, which has been given momentum with the likes of Dick Pratt and Jeff Kennett, and now the Wentworth group of experts are weighing into the subject. It is clearly to the greater good that more people are talking about water. But the next step is to act.

Over the past quarter of a century, Australians generally have become aware of energy as an issue and it took the so-called energy shock of the early 1970s, when oil prices quadrupled, for us to look critically at our patterns of use and consumption. As a consequence of that shock, we stopped using fuel oil for home heating and became more conscious of fuel efficient cars. Here in Canberra we also became conscious of energy efficiency in our homes and offices and the energy efficiency rating scheme has become part of our lives.

Of course, we must go much further down that path, but as a starting point it has been a most effective one. And in short, that is what I am proposing in this bill in regard to water. It is, in itself, no panacea-and I am not for one moment suggesting that it is. The modest measures included in this bill will have little or no effect unless they are accompanied by ongoing public education and awareness programs. A great deal of the water in our home is wasted through ignorance and carelessness, and if we draw attention to this and effect a change in behaviour, as has occurred with energy use, we will be on the right track.

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