Page 2247 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 28 August 2007
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guaranteed safe water supply. I hope that our focus on the reverse osmosis technology does not unduly reflect successful lobbying by its manufacturers, because I have not seen any evidence that the government has considered any of the other ways of recycling sewage.
For that matter, I also question the need to spend $3.4 million on an annual review of future water options, and I hope that we do not see a repeat of this next year. I have said it before, and it is relevant: while Actew needs to sell more water to make its money, we will see it focusing on supply and rejecting potential for more local area ways of providing water—for instance, through community recycling schemes—and perhaps that is why we do not see such full-on support for tanks as we see in much of New South Wales.
Thomas Homer-Dixon, who has been writing for many years about environmental security issues, says that the decentralisation and establishment of standalone water and power production systems is one way of building resilience. (Second speaking period taken.)
Sitting suspended from 6.28 to 8.00 pm.
DR FOSKEY: I commend the grey water system and the water tank rebate funding as a starting point, but I still do not think this is quite enough. Funds for these small-scale containments help to ensure that we do not need to spend $350 million on a large-scale plan, which would, in any case, be only a medium-term solution. We also need to ensure that these rebates do not always favour the more wealthy households. We need to install them into public housing as a matter of course. We also need to get more stringent with new house guidelines.
Why does not every new house have to have a water tank? Why is not a grey water recycling system mandatory? These are the things that take pressure off our town water requirements and add efficiency if installed at the time of building. The commissioner for the environment, I believe, comes under the Chief Minister’s portfolio and it was interesting to note that this year, as with last year, the commissioner was left out of the hearings.
Anyway, Mr Darro Stinson turned up on our final day of hearings. It was good to meet him and good to see that he had the state of the environment report in hand, although I do note that he has now gone on leave and is not expected back until October. Nonetheless, we hope that the state of the environment report will be delivered in December, as promised. We also hope that his report, which he apparently was preparing on his extra one day a week, making his total workload three days a week, will advise the Chief Minister, the minister for the environment, on the future role of the Office of the Commissioner for the Environment. I believe that there is a need for an expansion of that role so that the commissioner can deal with complaints and can advertise his or her services more broadly because at the moment the office does not have the capacity to respond to concerns from the public.
I am just talking about a few selected issues here, and I would like to talk about the City West precinct. The Greens have been watching the redevelopment of City West
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