Page 3618 - Week 08 - Friday, 24 August 2012
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environmentally friendly alternative to cremation or traditional burial practices. Natural burials also represent a more affordable burial option and reduce pressure on traditional burial services. The practice has not been available in the ACT until now, so I am heartened to see this is an area where the government has taken notice of ACT Greens initiatives.
These cemeteries can also become natural preserves for native vegetation and wildlife. As an identified wildlife corridor, the Tuggeranong site is an ideal location for a nature reserve. Because they are natural spaces, they do not usually require the heavy maintenance and watering required in conventional cemeteries. Now that natural burials are to be part of the new southern cemetery, we would also like to see the government expand natural burials to other cemeteries.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Proposed expenditure—Part 1.19—Actew Corporation—$10,587,000 (net cost of outputs), totalling $10,587,000.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (3.37): Over the past 11 years this ACT Labor government has presided over water prices that have increased by more than 200 per cent. The ACT’s water prices are set to rise further because of two factors. Firstly, the cost of the major water security projects will add $220 to the yearly water bills of Canberra residents.
This ACT Labor government has presided over cost blow-outs on the project to enlarge Cotter Dam, to the tune of almost 240 per cent since the original cost estimates made in 2005. At that time the Cotter Dam enlargement was estimated at $120 million. Currently the cost is standing at $405 million.
The ACT government has similarly presided over cost blow-outs on the Murrumbidgee to Googong pipeline, which coincidentally is being opened as we speak, or has just been opened. In 2005 the estimated cost was around $45 million. The estimated cost at the time of building was $150 million, but today we are told that it may come in a little under that; perhaps $12 million lower than that, if we are lucky. So the best-case scenario is that the Murrumbidgee to Googong pipeline will have a 200 per cent blow-out.
Secondly, sales of water in the ACT have declined because of two factors. One relates to water restrictions during the drought period and the other relates to an abundance of rain in the past two years. This means that sales revenue for Actew Corporation has fallen, impacting on Actew’s bottom line and therefore the dividend that Actew pays to the ACT government. So now Actew wants to recover those lost revenues. But is it Actew or the government driving this recovery plan?
I suggest to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, that this recovery of lost revenue is not for Actew. It is to create a higher dividend flow for the ACT Labor government. So, because water consumption has been lower, primarily because the people of Canberra have responded well to the government’s call for water conservation, those same
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