Page 1844 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 4 May 2011
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ACT. It impacts on the amount of potable water to which the people of the ACT will have access. It impacts on the amount of untreated water that will be available for capture and use for watering of ovals and playing fields. It impacts on the amount of water that golf clubs and rural properties can divert into dams. It even impacts on the amount of greywater that can be re-used, because ultimately that water is supposed to be treated and returned to the river system.
So, as I said earlier, this brings into question the viability in economic, social and environmental terms of the many strategies that are available to maximise the availability of water in all its forms in the ACT.
The Canberra Liberals believe that these matters need to be brought together and considered as a package. Hence Mrs Dunne wrote to the ICRC senior commissioner last November to request that he consider undertaking a suitable inquiry. The commissioner previously had expressed to Mrs Dunne some interest in pursuing the matter, but there were some hurdles in the way; hence Mrs Dunne’s motion today that I have moved. On behalf of Mrs Dunne, I thank the commissioner for his interest in the subject and for his advice on the mechanics to get an inquiry underway.
The proposed Murray-Darling Basin plan, if implemented, will have a serious and profound impact on Canberra’s water security, its supply and our access to it. It brings into question all of the initiatives that have been introduced or proposed to provide the people of Canberra with a secure water supply into the future. It brings into question the viability of those initiatives. We need to consider those questions, and the ICRC is well placed, indeed best placed, to do that. I commend Mrs Dunne’s motion to the Assembly.
MR CORBELL: (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Water, Minister for Energy and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (5.27): I would like to say at the outset that the government does not support this motion on the grounds that it is not only premature but also pre-empts the outcome of a number of other investigations that are already underway. Before I get into the details of why the government rejects the motion, let me take the opportunity to provide an update on the ACT’s water supply situation and progress for the ACT’s major water security projects.
The territory is currently, as members would be aware, in the fortunate position of having all of its water storages at 100 per cent capacity. This follows the second wettest summer on record, with Canberra airport recording 375 millimetres of rainfall, double the historical average of 169 millimetres. But, as members would know, there is no guarantee that our dams will always remain at this level. CSIRO future climate predictions suggest that we should, indeed, expect longer and more extreme periods of drought. Despite our full dams, there is still a need for the ACT to finalise its water security projects to ensure there is available sufficient water supply to meet the ACT's future water needs.
The territory is making good progress towards the completion of its three major projects, projects which I note the Liberal Party seem to doubt. The largest project involves increasing the capacity of the Cotter Dam from four to 78 gigalitres. The
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