Page 1850 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 4 May 2011
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The water security projects are going ahead. The approvals have either been put in place or have largely been granted and sods have been turned—in fact, in the case of the Cotter, a large amount of work has been done—or are close to being turned. To have the ICRC spend time and money mapping out what the greywater industry and urban water projects would have looked like if those decisions were not made does not offer any practical benefit to the Assembly or the community, in my view.
Put simply, those decisions will not be reversed. We are hardly going to tear down the bits of the enlarged Cotter Dam that have already been built. So we think there are some amendments that need to be made to the motion to make the most of the inquiry. The issue around the Murray-Darling is another one.
Before I speak to the amendments, I will move the amendments that have been circulated in my name.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ms Le Couteur): You need to seek leave. I understand you have more than one.
MR RATTENBURY: I seek leave to move the amendments circulated in my name together.
Leave granted.
MR RATTENBURY: I move:
(1) Omit paragraph (1)(b), substitute:
“(b) the potential impact on the availability of water for use in the ACT under the Guide to the Proposed Basin Plan and that the final impacts of the Plan in the ACT will not be definitively known until after the Basin Plan is finalised in accordance with the Water Act 2007 (Cwlth);”.
(2) Omit paragraph (3), substitute:
“(3) without limiting the scope of the inquiry, calls on the inquiry to include consideration of:
(a) the economic, environmental and social costs and benefits of (2)(a) and (b), with and without the Plan, to the extent it is possible to do so given (1)(b); and
(b) any water conservation initiatives other than (2)(a) and (b) that also have the potential to deliver economic, environmental and social outcomes; and”.
(3) Omit the word “2011” from paragraph (4), substitute “March 2012”.
As I was saying, there are some concerns we have about the original wording of the motion. I am seeking to address those in the amendments because we want to give the
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