Page 4661 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 27 November 2019
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Coombs peninsula, but previously the Canberra Liberals were thinking of building a whole dam, dealing out the historic farmland of the Naas and Gudgenby area.
In closing, once again I thank Mr Gupta and acknowledge his constructive engagement. The government welcomes the suggestions brought forward today in his motion, and I look forward to reporting back to the Assembly.
MS LAWDER (Brindabella) (4.09): I thank Mr Gupta for bringing this motion to the Assembly today. The use of our water and how much water we have are very important issues for most Australians, and it is especially true here in the ACT. My colleague Mrs Dunne has addressed the significant issue as a reminder that it was the Canberra Liberals who made the big decision to build new water storage capacity for the ACT—one of the few new dams built in Australia by any administration in decades.
I have a few minor points—it depends who you ask as to whether they are minor points—or technical matters relating to Mr Gupta’s motion. Firstly, paragraph (1)(a) is technically incorrect. While it is abundantly clear that much of Australia is facing significant water constraints, there are also some wetter parts of Australia that are not facing the same issues. When we discuss these issues, it is important not to glibly gloss over the facts.
The second point is that the reference to how severe a drought is must take many factors into account. Expressions like a “120-year drought” or a “one in 1,000-year drought” are really only indicative estimates, because the severity and relative severity of droughts will vary significantly from place to place.
Paragraph (3)(b) contains the recommendation to “hold consultations with water stakeholders and relevant experts and report back to the Assembly on the government’s findings from these consultations before 1 July 2020”. I am concerned, and I think others are as well, that, given our storages are at 52 per cent and dropping rapidly, reporting back to the Assembly before 1 July 2020 does not actually leave much time to make any changes to try to avert us going into temporary water restrictions for the summer of 2020-21. Mr Gentleman referred to possible water restrictions.
This government has shown itself to be lacking in water policy, lacking in managing Icon Water, and lacking in providing an effective and efficient stormwater management system. To illustrate that, for example, I refer to the questionable issues of the Shared Services contract.
We would all be interested in knowing how the $80-plus million Googong pipeline has worked. For example, how much water could potentially have been transferred from the Murrumbidgee to Googong dam through the Murrumbidgee to Googong transfer for the last five years? What is the maximum that could potentially have been transferred? Also, we would like to know how much was actually transferred over the last five years and why Icon Water left it too late to start pumping—that is, to save money—now that there is not enough water in the Murrumbidgee River to pump. Perhaps Mr Gupta would like to ask Icon Water about that.
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