Page 2372 - Week 06 - Friday, 27 June 2008
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capacity to pay even higher prices for construction of a WPP needs to be seriously questioned.
There is a table which is of interest; it actually shows the cost per kilolitre for each of the things, so I recommend to members table 7.11 on page 76 of this report. The report continues:
The Commission accepts that there may be a need to upgrade the LMWQCC—
the lower Molonglo water quality control system—
to provide for additional treatment of salts. However, this can be achieved as a stand-alone project at a far cheaper cost than that for the WPP.
The Commission is also concerned that given ACTEW’s capital works program over the coming period, ACTEW may not have the resources to deliver the WPP in a timely and cost-efficient manner in any case.
And so it goes on. I think it is extraordinarily timely that we read this. I congratulate the government for finally having the guts to build the dam and I refer the government and Actew to the wise words of the ICRC on this issue; they are very timely indeed.
The other issue in relation to Actew, marginally related to Actew, that came up throughout the estimates was, of course, the decision to build a gas-fired power station and data centre at Hume. I do not particularly want to dwell on that issue. I want to dwell on what Actew and ActewAGL had in mind for my constituents in Belconnen. The Chief Minister really does get all in a lather about this because it is very sensitive. It is his electorate and he has been out there peddling the story: “There is nothing to see here. Move along, move along—nothing of interest here. We never planned to build a gas-fired power plant.” He said there was not a skerrick of evidence, but in fact there is a clear documentary trail that shows that at some stage this matter was being considered.
We will look at the brief summary of the attractive features for ActewAGL of part block 18 section 23 Hume and part block 1360 Belconnen, which was a document put together, I understand, in June 2007. (Second speaking period taken.) It says in relation to the Belconnen block:
Part Block 1360 Belconnen is close enough—
close enough, they mean, to the Hume site—
to permit synchronous data transmission (yet far enough away not to be affected by a localised catastrophe at the main site) and is close to an electricity sub-station and—
guess what—
a gas supply.
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