NATS PUSH FOR PARLIAMENTARY WATER INQUIRY

21/8/07

The Nationals are calling on the Brumby Government to suspend its $4.9 billion water plans to allow time for the Parliament’s Environment and Natural Resource Committee to conduct an  inquiry into options for meeting Melbourne’s future water needs.

The Nationals Upper House Leader Peter Hall today moved a notice in Parliament that would require the all-party committee to undertake an inquiry and report its findings by December 2008.

“We believe the government is acting in haste with its proposal to build the desalination plant at Wonthaggi and pump 75 billion litres out of the Goulburn River to Melbourne via the proposed north-south pipeline,” Mr Hall said.

“Neither community has been properly consulted about the projects and the government hasn’t even been prepared to commit to conducting an Environmental Effects Statement for one of the biggest infrastructure projects in Victoria’s history.

“There are dozens of unanswered questions about both projects and the government is attempting to bulldoze its way through the proper processes by claiming that it has looked at all other options.

“The Nationals believe that there are better alternatives to taking water from the Goulburn Valley and creating an enormously expensive desalination plant to meet Melbourne’s water needs.”

The Nationals Spokesman for Water Peter Walsh said the Brumby Government should involve the community in discussion on possible options for supplementing Melbourne’s water supplies.

“There needs to be more focus on water savings and conservation measures along with a greater commitment to recycling more than 300 billion litres of partially treated effluent that is pumped to sea each year,” Mr Walsh said.

“The effluent which is pumped to sea is a wasted asset that could be treated more intensively and recycled for a range of uses in Melbourne including parks, gardens, sporting reserves and appropriate industries.

“Better recycling initiatives would also have the benefit of being more environmentally-friendly than the large-scale desalination plant which, despite its promises, the government has no hope of powering through renewable energy sources.

“Melbourne has the opportunity to be more responsible with water and that will require local solutions to the problems it is faced with – not the quick-fix of pumping water from an already stressed Goulburn-Murray region.”

Media contact:                  Peter Hall      (03) 5174 7066   or 0427 747 066