Page 4776 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 20 October 2010
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And then there is the subject of the major water security projects themselves. Over the past several years, there has been much controversy over the cost and management of these projects. The enlarged Cotter Dam started life in 2005 with a price tag of $120 million. Now the project is well underway, but with a price tag of $363 million—three times the original estimate. The enlarged Cotter Dam will increase our storage from four gigalitres to 78 gigalitres, but if the proposed Murray-Darling Basin plan is implemented, will we actually be able to use the water that we have in that increased storage?
Does our increased storage capacity mean that it will be unlikely that stage 2 water restrictions will be introduced any time soon? Actew’s managing director, Mr Sullivan, told us as much this morning in the media. He said:
We’re doing this with a view that we should not have to move back to higher levels of restrictions.
People are talking about these things.
This leads us to the major issue today—the central topic of my motion—that people have been talking about in relation to water; that is, water restrictions. There is no doubt that we have experienced extraordinarily good late winter and spring rains. That has led many people to approach me in a variety of circumstances to say, “When are we going to have our water restrictions lifted?” On the other side, there are many people who say that under no circumstances should we change our water restrictions and lighten things up for people. There is a clear diversity of views in the community.
Water restrictions have been a topic of conversation in our community for many years. People have talked about their dying gardens. They have talked about the fact that their kids can no longer play under a sprinkler as they used to when some of us here were younger. They also lament the fact that it is very hard to maintain even a small piece of lawn for kids to play on—kick around a football or hit a cricket ball. And they talk about poorly managed environmental flows from our dams.
And people have talked about the mixed messages that come from the authorities—that they have been getting from Actew and from the government—about water restrictions, and when they will be imposed and when they will be lifted. It is very useful just to look at the media statements in relation to this issue. If we go back even a month, to 29 September—less than a month ago—we find that Mr Sullivan said on ABC radio that it was “too early to consider reducing the current stage 2 restrictions”. He said:
We’d like to see what Summer brings. We’d like to see what the impact is if we have a sprinkler exemption over the Christmas holidays, what that means. Look at our water levels come the beginning of autumn …
So on 29 September there was no prospect of lifting stage 2 water restrictions until autumn. Last week, on 14 October, in the Canberra Times, Mr Sullivan was quoted as saying that Actew would enter a consultation period of about two weeks before deciding whether to revert to stage 1 water restrictions. So there was a consultation
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