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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 11 Hansard (21 October) . . Page.. 3867 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

we need to be mindful of the implications for the catchment, for the future and for the water infrastructure that we have within the ACT. Water catchment is an expensive business.

Actew are currently engaged-and my colleague the Treasurer will go into this in more detail in the debate-in upgrading the infrastructure at both the Googong and the Cotter in relation to the separate catchments. It is expensive work. It is being undertaken in relation to the level of water within our catchment. Mr Quinlan will go to those issues, and also the water restrictions, in his presentation during this debate.

I will touch on future policies that we need to be mindful of. Ms Tucker talked about seeking to avoid the construction of an additional dam within the ACT, or within our catchment, and that is our hope in relation to the policy we have delivered and the strategy we are currently developing. It is designed around the hope that we might, if at all possible, through a concerted community effort, avoid major additional investment in infrastructure-in other words, in the dam or some alternative.

That is a hope. Of course, it depends to some extent on the rate and level of growth and on global warming, climate change and the effect the bushfires-the destruction of so much of the vegetation within the catchment-will have on the water yield within the catchment over the next 10 to 20 years.

At this stage, our policy and strategy are designed around looking at the extent to which we can avoid the construction of a dam. Any prudent administration-and this is a prudent administration, as is Actew-would plan for the eventual need for major infrastructure investment. Indeed, this government is mindful of that, and Actew is engaged in work around it, as is the broader public service, which is looking at some of the options and some of the issues.

A non-urban study has addressed issues of the future development within the Cotter precinct and, in its consultations and discussion, has looked at the possibility of changing that precinct through the construction of a new or enhanced dam at the Cotter. The Cotter Dam is very small; it currently contains only about four gigalitres, enough for a couple of weeks. Someone suggests two days; I thought it was a bit more.

Those who plan for the longer term and consider the future needs of the territory suggest that, if you built a new dam at the Cotter, it would be possible to increase the catchment within the valley where the Cotter Dam is located. Hence there is the horrifying thought of increasing that catchment from four gigalitres to 90 gigalitres through the construction of a new dam, with a wall approximately 70 metres high. It is possible to convert the Cotter Dam from a four to a 90 gigalitre water catchment, but significant costs are associated with that, as well as significant environmental costs.

We have retained land at Mount Tennent, and we have retained land at Coree with an eye to the future needs of an expanded ACT and region. Land reserved for the potential construction of dams within those areas has always been in the Territory Plan.

In 2003, with the change in the nature of the debate on sustainable water use within Australia, there has never been a greater concentration of minds or greater willingness to

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