Joanna Gash (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Water conservation is a contentious issue in the electorate of Gilmore. On one hand, the Sydney Catchment Authority is pumping water out of the Shoalhaven River to supplement Sydney’s supply, and on the other hand they are tiptoeing around making hard choices to conserve the metropolitan water supply for the future. They have shelved their notorious plan to construct an energy hungry desalination plant in Sydney because their own constituents were saying it was a crazy idea. Now they are looking at drawing yet more water from an underground aquifer in the Southern Highlands that will only yield about two weeks supply of Sydney’s daily consumption at best. This is another of their crazy plans, all driven by political imperatives rather than good sense. These are the same people who say they have embraced the ideology of ecoconservation and have used that ideology to win over the green vote. Yet when you embrace the cold hard facts they are as conscious of the environment as Attila the Hun was of the promotion of peace in Asia Minor.

I am really at a loss to identify a water conservation strategy being pursued by the Iemma government that has any meaning. Certainly there are all the noises and expressions of concern, thanks to the publicity machine they have developed over the years, but when it comes to doing something meaningful there is a bit of a void. How many times do we have to read about the leaks from the water pipeline network that crisscrosses the Sydney catchment going unattended for long periods of time and the subsequent loss of huge amounts of water? Instead, we get a form of mea culpa from the state government and things just go on as if nothing is happening.

At least in the federal sphere we are taking some deliberate steps to educate people on the need for conservation. We are actually doing more than hiring a bunch of water police to monitor the use of sprinklers. I am delighted to report that the Gilmore electorate has been the recipient of a number of grants from the federal government’s Community Water Grants program. The recipients have come from diverse backgrounds and I can say that, apart from the obvious value to each group in conserving or recycling their waste water, each project serves to act as an educational tool as to the direction we ought to be taking. Might I add that there will be no need to police these projects because they are factual and have substance.

For instance, the Illaroo Road Public School will use their funds to install rainwater tanks on the school premises at north Nowra. The collected water will be used to irrigate the school oval, flush toilets and contribute to the school’s newly created wetlands. They expect to save about half a million litres of water each year. As well, the students will be able to see an actual working example of recycling water which will reinforce the concept of water recycling in their minds. There are a number of schools that have obtained similar funding, including Nowra High School, Sanctuary Point Public School, St George’s Basin Public School, St John the Evangelist Catholic High School and the Tudor House School in Moss Vale. As well, the Sussex Inlet Golf Club will be irrigating their golf course with recycled water, saving the club an astonishing five million litres of water each year.

These are examples of where we should be going. We should be not just concentrating on restricting about two per cent of water consumption in Sydney but funding initiatives that will make a difference for the future. More and more I am fielding complaints of how the best that Sydneysiders can do is draw water from the people who are trying to make a meaningful difference in their approach to conserving our scarcest commodity. Shame on the state government, Mr Iemma.

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In accordance with sessional order 193 the time for members’ statements has concluded.