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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 01 Hansard (Tuesday, 10 February 2004) . . Page.. 41 ..

It is true that we have been engaged in considerations about Canberra’s water supply for some time now. I think that members would be aware that I have been particularly keen to promote a public debate around water and water issues in the broader community. It is undoubted that the community has some very significant decisions to make about water. We have been engaged in the debate for well over a year. We have been developing for the first time since self-government a water strategy. It is the first time at any stage that any government has sought to look seriously at the sustainable use of water and the development of a sustainable water strategy that will take us into the future.

We have seen the fruit of that particular effort through the release just last November of the draft strategy “Think Water, Act Water”. As indicated in that strategy, I think it is important that we recall and reflect on the fact that in the draft strategy released last November the government stated it had asked Actew to coordinate the investigation into the possible large-scale augmentation of Canberra’s water supply.

Actew has been engaged in that work. It is quite significant and detailed work. This goes to the nub of the announcement that the opposition made yesterday on the basis of a meeting of their party room held on Saturday or Sunday. It would be the most detailed consultation on any major capital works project in the history of the ACT. It was reported in today’s Canberra Times that the Liberal Party consultation on a new dam in the Naas Valley was to ring the owner of an affected property. As the owner reports today, Mrs Dunne rang him and gloated about the fact, “Guess what! We are going to drown your entire property under a new dam; consider yourself consulted.” Talk about consultation!

This goes to the nub of this major capital works program. Consultation on the biggest piece of infrastructure since self-government was a phone call, in a gloating way, on a Sunday afternoon to a land owner. It is quite remarkable, isn’t it? Here we are talking about a major piece of capital works—perhaps $150 million to $200 million. There is no budget, no business case, no environmental impact statement, no consultation, absolutely no climate work, no hydrological study and no assessment of where the money is going to come from. Where is the money going to come from? We are told, “We will put up rates or we will borrow it.” This is the nature and the status of the consideration that went into the Liberal Party’s decision to build a dam in the Naas Valley. That is about it.

We need to look at it. There was no consultation, no business case or plan, no budget, no environment impact study, no climate study, no hydrological study, no engineering studies. I think most worrying there was no commitment to demand strategies, no commitment to a water strategy, no commitment to how to reduce water use and no commitment to looking at any other option. Why would you just rush out there and say, “Panic, panic, panic; we need a new dam. Let’s plonk it down here.” There are other very reasonable options that should be considered and are being considered by the government. Everyone knows they are being considered by the government. Everybody knows that Actew is working with the CSIRO, that Actew is working with Ecowise to consider all these issues. It really is a most worrying way to do business.

I am sure that I know what everyone in Canberra thought when they saw reports of this particular decision. I know I thought it instantly and I know everybody else in Canberra

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