Page 4784 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 20 October 2010
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almost 90 per cent capacity. What you can justify, though, are ongoing, permanent measures and directions to use water wisely. That is what the permanent water conservation measures regime is designed to achieve.
An editorial in the Canberra Times as recently as 15 October pointed out that even though two of the city’s four dams are at capacity, we need the Canberra community not to be complacent. Indeed, government agrees. That is why permanent water conservation measures will be a fact of life, and community awareness through government and Actew will be an important element of reminding Canberrans about why permanent water conservation measures should be a fact of life.
Turning to the issue of the Murray-Darling Basin plan, this is a critical issue for the city. The government will be continuing the very detailed analysis that it is currently undertaking in relation to the plan and the guide to the plan that has been released by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority. Indeed, today, officers of my department were again at meetings with the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, working through the issues and getting a stronger understanding of the authority’s views about the sustainable diversion limits it believes should be in place for the territory.
We will adopt a constructive approach in these discussions. We will not be recalcitrant. We will not say that there is not a range of difficult issues that needs to be addressed, because there simply is, and we need to be constructive in that negotiation and in that process. The pleasing thing, of course, is that there is an extended period of time for engagement and discussion on these issues. There will be a meeting of the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council late this year—I think it is programmed for some time in early December. The government, along with all the other basin states, will have a formal opportunity to discuss these issues in some detail with both the authority and the commonwealth minister at that time. But this will not preclude the territory, my officials and myself from progressing those issues out of session with the relevant basin authority officials, with senior members of the authority and, indeed, with the commonwealth minister.
As we have said, we do not want to see a situation where the government and the territory are in a state of permanent water restrictions as a result of changes to our sustainable diversion limit. We believe that can be avoided, and we will be pushing the case very strongly that there needs to be recognition of the natural population growth that is occurring in our city. That must be taken account of in terms of the sustainable direction limit available to us for our water resources.
The government and Actew have been proactive in managing the ACT’s water use. We have adopted a range of policies and measures to ensure and maintain efficient use of our water resources. Major water security projects are underway. We have achieved significant reductions.
Opposition members interjecting—
MR CORBELL: The problem with this opposition is that they like to be heard in silence, but when anyone else seeks to contradict their view of the world, they try to shout you down. They try to wreck debate in this place. That is their continual
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