Page 1458 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 26 September 1989
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have managed to do it. The trouble is that the people who can afford to pay the bills always wait until they get the second notice. It saves them money. The poor people who cannot afford to pay it pay their bill in a hurry because they are frightened somebody is going to knock on their door and turn off their electricity. There are a few people whose water I would like to cut off, but never mind.
As for Dr Kinloch worrying about the pipes being blown up, if people would cut all the trees out of their gardens we would not have any trouble about that. It is trees that go around the pipes, and problems are caused when people throw babies' nappies down them. If we could stop people throwing babies' nappies down the toilets, we would not have half the problems we now have. You cannot have all these things and expect them to be perfect. If you want trees in Canberra, then you must expect a few blockages in the toilet every now and then.
As for Mr Winnel's complaints about ACTEW, I sat through them for four hours one night at a dinner. He never drew a breath and never stopped telling me about all the problems with ACTEW. I just sat there and kept nodding my head because I thought there was nothing else I could do. Well, let me tell you, there are two sides to the story.
A member interjected.
MRS GRASSBY: My friend here tells me there are three sides to every story, so there are probably three sides to this one. I have arranged for ACTEW to report to the committee on the other side of the story. I do not quite believe that Mr Winnel is always correct.
Now, let us get to Mr Jensen. I will find out the cost of the publication and let him know in the house. As for it being suitable for a schoolgirl, I am sure the authority will be very happy to do school promotions. Unfortunately, the authority thought it was for members of parliament. It thought they were a bunch of kids anyway. Therefore, it had to make it pretty simple. After what I have heard here tonight, I think that was probably right.
As for water in the toilets, I have decided how we are going to fix that. I am going to put a lock on every toilet door in this building, particularly on the first floor, and you will have to pay to go to the toilet. That will certainly cut down the use of the toilets, so we will not have any trouble with wasting water and that will fix that one.
Let me tell you that we already use second-hand water on about three of the golf courses in Canberra. I am just trying to find out which ones they are. I know the one at Duntroon uses second-hand water. It is water from effluent, which is probably why it is so green and beautiful. So if we can arrange for everybody else in Canberra to use effluent water on their gardens, they would
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