Page 4065 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 16 Sept 2009
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Mr Coe interjecting—
Mr Hanson interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Members! Mr Corbell, one moment please. Mr Coe, Mr Hanson!
MR CORBELL: Clearly the Liberal Party are not interested in water security, Mr Speaker, because if they were they would be paying a lot more attention.
These issues that we face in relation to inflows mean that we must augment our supply, we must continue with our demand management, we must continue with our reuse strategies, and all of these are being pursued by the government at this time. But the Cotter Dam plays a particularly important role.
Despite the significant reduction in rainfall and inflows into our dams, the Cotter catchment is still performing better than the other main catchment, which is of course the Googong catchment. We know that a large amount of water still is discharged from the Cotter Dam because it only holds four gigalitres and that is well in excess of environmental flows, particularly when there is good rainfall. So the opportunity to capture and store more rainfall exists with the expansion of the Cotter Dam, and that is why this project is particularly important.
This has been assessed in detail by Actew. Actew completed a comprehensive review of options in 2007, and that review was endorsed by the government later this year. In combination with a range of other developments, we are moving towards a strong basis for ensuring water security well into the future. Of course it has been this government which has negotiated a long-term lease over the Googong Dam. It has resolved the question of ownership of the Googong Dam, which has been an unresolved question ever since self-government. We now have a 150-year lease over that dam.
We have resolved the cap diversion issue through the Murray-Darling Basin agreement, which means that we have a greater opportunity to access water through the interstate water trading arrangements, and that is particularly important in light of the decision to purchase water from Tantangara and to divert it to the Googong Dam via the Murrumbidgee at Angle Crossing.
These projects, all combined, ensure better water security for the ACT and the region. We want to establish a situation where wise and prudential water use remains the norm but where long-term water restrictions are the exception to the norm. That is the situation we are seeking to achieve and that is why the Cotter Dam is so important.
MR SPEAKER: Ms Burch, a supplementary question?
MS BURCH: Minister, can you please tell the Assembly what are the other benefits of the development of an enlarged Cotter Dam?
MR CORBELL: There are a number of other benefits aside from the issues associated with improved water security. During the construction of this project, we
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