Page 4480 - Week 10 - Thursday, 23 September 2010
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As a community we need to have a conversation about how best we can use our water resources so that we can become a community that conserves water in a proactive way and in a way that treats us as a grown-up community. Members of this place would not be surprised to hear that I have a particular concern about the way in which water restrictions, even stage 2 water restrictions, are constructed. The way they are constructed sends very bad messages to people about what is an effective way of using water in one’s garden.
The particular case in point is that, under stage 2 water restrictions, if I wanted to I could stand around between 7 and 10 in the morning and 7 and 10 at night with my trigger hose and water my garden. I would do it in a very ineffective way, but I could do it every day of the week for six hours a day. I would use a considerable amount of water but I would have a very ineffective impact on my garden. It is about time that we had a sensible conversation about how we can better use that amount of water.
From time to time we have had a relaxation of the water restrictions. During the last Christmas holidays there was a relaxation so it was possible, even on stage 3 water restrictions, to water gardens by using a sprinkler one day a week on an odds and evens basis. I would welcome an opportunity to return to that sort of approach across water restriction and water conservation regimes.
We need to tell people that if they are going to put water on their gardens they should not do it little and often. They should perhaps do it longer and with longer spaces in between. That encourages root growth and means that the plants will be stronger and more hardy. It means they will be able to look for water for themselves, especially now that we have increasing water tables in the community.
These are serious questions that we need to have serious discussions about in the context of water restrictions. I find it a little disappointing but not surprising that the tenor of Ms Hunter’s presentation was all about the things that the Greens find virtuous. It is all right to put water on your garden if you are going to grow a veggie garden or have a rockery, but there is no mention of the need, the requirement and the desire of many families to have a small patch of lawn where they can play with their kids and their dog. This is not an unreasonable aspiration for people in the ACT in the 21st century.
Most people who live in suburbia do so because they have children and they want to have a safe and commodious place for them to play. We in the Canberra Liberals want to work through the water restrictions and water conservation measures so that it is not an unreasonable aspiration for people to have a patch of lawn where they can play with their children and their dogs, where they can play a spot of cricket from time to time, or whatever people choose to do in their backyard when they want to have their kids outside.
Over the last few years we have seen a decline in the quality of our gardens because of the drought. Now we are presented with an opportunity to be able to revivify those lawns and gardens and have people coming back to more regular and more accepted patterns of behaviour in the use of their gardens. It is not just about the individual
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