Page 4789 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 20 October 2010
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
predicted that the ACT will need to make significant cuts to our water allocation. That is certainly a very significant factor for us.
The factors that have not had so much consideration are the climate scenarios that predict that catchment inflows will continue to reduce in the years ahead, including a long-term scenario from the CSIRO of a 50 per cent reduction to inflows for the ACT. Of course, as others have commented, in a growing city that will inevitably mean that our water demand will increase. All of these factors are the big picture in which we really need to consider our future water security.
So where are we now? We are coming out of a period where we have seen significantly reduced inflows into our catchment. I know the minister has made statements here before, but we have seen a period where our inflows were at around 25 per cent of historic levels. This year, after seven years of drought, we are experiencing an El Nino weather year, a weather pattern that brings above average rainfall to much of Australia, particularly inland eastern regions.
It is not just us that are benefiting from the extra rain this season. Right across the region people are revelling in the wet. We have seen those stories in the press, although for some it has been a little too wet. I think even those people in flooded communities have probably appreciated the bigger picture of the breaking rain. They just wished it might have been more evenly distributed.
As has been highlighted in the last week or so, we are sitting in a catchment—the Murray-Darling Basin—that is facing some very serious water challenges over the long term. The risk of reducing water restrictions is that we change the culture of being a water-saving community. When we look at those long-term issues, we are going to need to continue to be a water-saving community. We will face water stress in future. We have built a culture in the ACT of being water aware. I think that is a healthy place for a community such as ours to be in because of that likely long-term future water stress.
We cannot necessarily measure the benefits of this change of culture or the water awareness or exactly how much has been invested in getting the community to this place. But we do not want to lose this appreciation by the community of water saving and water efficiency and we cannot afford to become complacent. Certainly some people in the community—and we have heard this on talkback radio and in letters to the editor—are somewhat bamboozled by a sense that everything is now okay. We have got the head of Actew out there saying, “You’ll be able to have lawns again into the future.” That is obviously based on assumptions around the Cotter Dam as well. I think some people are finding it genuinely confusing as to where we are up to, what is happening, why we have made all this effort and suddenly it is all okay.
The Greens are comfortable that Actew have made a prudent decision in relation to stage 2 restrictions. I would encourage them to be equally prudent and timely in taking their decisions when it comes to increasing restrictions if we return to dry conditions, which seems to be a likely scenario. Canberrans need not be afraid of increased restrictions. We have demonstrated that we are more than capable of handling them.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video