Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 07 Hansard (Thursday, 1 July 2004) . . Page.. 3107 ..

Mr Speaker, we are here today to consider whether the document “Think water, act water” should continue to be regarded as the water resources strategy for the ACT. According to the Water Resources Act of the ACT, a management plan shall include:

• a description of the water resources of the territory, including the flows required to meet the environmental needs of individual waterways or aquifers, or parts of individual waterways or aquifers;

• the proposed water allocations for the next succeeding 10 years;

• the water allocations to be created for urban supply, industry and other uses; and

• actions to be taken by the authority to manage the water resources of the territory.

The Water Resources Act was passed in this place in 1998. As a result of that, the “Water resources management plan” came into operation on 16 August 1999, propagated by Environment ACT and the Environment Management Authority on the authority of the minister. It was designed to last for 10 years. We all know that documents of this sort should not be considered to be graven in stone and not looked at in the intervening time, and I am not here today to quibble about that. We are here today to determine whether this document produced by the government is a suitable substitute.

The document produced by the government “Think water, act water” has an interesting history. It could be said that it came about as a result of a motion moved by Ms Tucker on 5 June 2002 about a water conservation and re-use strategy. That motion, as originally moved, was:

That this Assembly, noting that 5 June is World Environment Day and that one of the most pressing issues in the Murray Darling Basin region is land degradation caused by mismanagement of our water resources:

(1) agrees that:

(a) the building of further water supply dams in the ACT should be avoided;

(b) the water leaving the ACT via the Murrumbidgee River should be of no less quality than the water flowing into the ACT;

(c) adequate flows should be maintained in the ACT’s waterways to maintain their environmental values; and

(2) calls on the Government to:

(d) develop an ACT water conservation and reuse strategy to ensure that the water needs of any increase in population can be met, as far as possible, within existing capacities;

(e) investigate options for returning the ACT’s water supply and sewerage services to full government control so that these services can be managed for the public benefit and not commercial return;

(f) report to the Assembly on the implementation of this motion by the last sitting day of 2002.

As a result of that, but not necessarily directly because of the request made within, the government developed “Think water, act water”, which, as is the case with almost everything done by this government, was preceded by the usual crop of glossy publications and stage managed public consultation. There was the workbook, which you

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .