Page 2717 - Week 07 - Thursday, 3 July 2008
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themselves were not enough to secure our water future and that initiatives such as domestic water tanks were not cost effective.
The 2003 bushfires put our water supply in jeopardy. The ACT government figures suggested that catchment degeneration and climate change would lead to the reduction in runoff of between 25 and 50 per cent over the next 25 to 50 years in the Cotter catchment. The mismanagement of environmental flows meant that our water supplies were being run down faster than was necessary.
The Labor government consistently opposed the building of any new dams, all the way from February 2004 until October 2007. Labor wasted four years commissioning study after study. The solutions that Labor takes most seriously are always the bandaid solutions, like piping water from distant dams or recycling our sewage water. Each study had been used as the excuse for more inaction. When Jon Stanhope announced the start of water piping from the Cotter catchment to the Googong reservoir, he claimed that this was a good excuse for putting off the dam. A press release from the Chief Minister said:
… it made sense to see precisely what impact the Cotter-Googong transfer would have on the Territory’s capacity before committing the taxpayer to major infrastructure work.
This is what he said in February 2006. And he went even further in March 2006 when he told this Assembly:
It may be that we do not need to think again about whether or not we will ever need a dam. Perhaps we will in 30 years time, perhaps longer and perhaps never.
Mr Seselja: Such vision!
MRS DUNNE: As the Leader of the Opposition says, such a vision from Jon Stanhope on water security. It was not until late 2007 that Labor finally conceded that Canberra needs more water storage. But their boldest plan now is a proposal to enlarge the existing Cotter dam and, even under that plan, the commencement of filling the dam will not be any time sooner than April 2011.
Then we move to energy and infrastructure. While the ACT contributes only 1.2 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, there is a general recognition that, as a capital of a first-world economy, we should be leading by example. The ACT’s production of CO2 has risen from 3½ million tonnes in 1990 to 4.45 million tonnes in 2007. And, on a per capita basis, our production of CO2 in 2007 reached 13.7 tonnes per person.
The ACT is different from other states in that most of our emissions come disproportionately from two sources: the generation of electricity and transport. Despite the clear opportunities to address greenhouse gas emissions through renewable and alternative systems, the Stanhope government has dropped the ball on this issue.
Its only real initiative in the 2007-2011 climate change action plan under its climate change program is to legislate for renewable energy targets and mandate that green
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