MP Turnbull now responsible for water policy ...
Prime Minister John Howard has promoted two of his star backbenchers in a cabinet reshuffle.
Andrew Robb and Malcolm Turnbull have been appointed as parliamentary secretaries in a reshuffle forced by last week's retirement of Defence Minister Robert Hill.
Millionaire Mr Turnbull has been promoted to parliamentary secretary to the prime minister with particular responsibility for water policy.
Mr Turnbull is an advocate of water recycling - but not for drinking.
Two quotes from 2005:
"But from a practical point of view there is simply no need to introduce recycled water into the potable water system. There are ample uses for recycled water: industrial, parks, gardens, street cleaning and above all, replenishing the streamflows of our rivers and thereby replacing the potable water currently released into them."
See - Turnbull speech.
"Well, you can frame the question in all sorts of ways to get the answer you seek, of course. But let me just say this question of drinking recycled water in Sydney is a furphy. It's a non-issue, because there is no need to put that recycled water back into the drinking water system. There are plenty of non-potable, non-drinking uses for it, not least of which is restoring the environmental flows in our rivers. Israel is a good example. They recycle 70 per cent of their waste water and drink none of it and have no need to drink any of it. Can you treat recycled water to make it fit for drinking? Of course you can. Absolutely, and in many parts of the world that is done. Do we need to do it in Sydney? No, we do not."
See - ABC Insiders interview.
It will be interesting to see the impact of these changes on the water debate ...
posted by Concerned Ratepayer at 4:07 PM
5 Comments:
This is an interesting turn of events.
5:43 PM, January 24, 2006
Perhaps we will see some common sense start to prevail now!
1:39 AM, January 25, 2006
Yep! Something that is severely lacking in the Beattie Governemnt and the TCC.
1:41 AM, January 25, 2006
Malcolm Turnbull is going to have a fight on his hands if he says Sydney people shouldn't drink recycled water but it is ok for those in Toowoomba to do so.
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/
content/2006/s1555296.htm
Toowoomba plans to turn sewage into water
PM - Wednesday, 25 January , 2006 18:31:00
Reporter: Lisa Millar
MARK COLVIN: There are new hopes this afternoon for what could become the first plant in Australia to turn recycled effluent into drinking water.
Toowoomba, in Queensland's south east, is gripped by drought and desperately hoping for Federal Government funding to push ahead with the controversial plan.
And the Prime Minister's new Parliamentary Secretary with special responsibility for water policy, Malcolm Turnbull, is promising to treat the project as a priority.
Toowoomba's leaders say that with just 26 per cent of their water supplies left, there's no time to lose.
Lisa Millar reports.
LISA MILLAR: There have been endless blue skies in Toowoomba this summer, and the city's sick of them.
JOE RAMIA: Well we're in dire straits.
LISA MILLAR: The Deputy Mayor Joe Ramia has never seen a drought so bad, and that's just adding to the urgency surrounding the city's plans to build a recycling plant that would turn waste into water good enough to drink. Even better in fact. It'll be what they call hospital standard.
JOE RAMIA: This is something that's completely and utterly different and no-one's ever I suppose done it in Australia before. I think once a project up, this project will be a showpiece.
LISA MILLAR: As part of a broader water plan, Toowoomba wants to treat the town sewage, test it, then release it into the drinking water.
But they need $24 million from the Federal Government and they're hopeful Malcolm Turnbull, as the new Parliamentary Secretary with a special focus on water, is the man to make it happen.
JOE RAMIA: I guess I'm a lot more hopeful today than I was most probably three weeks ago.
LISA MILLAR: Malcolm Turnbull hasn't even been sworn in but he's been briefed on the project and promises to make it a priority.
MALCOLM TURNBULL: I can't commit the Government to fund the project but it's one that I'm slightly familiar with. I've had a meeting with the mayor, and certainly I think it's got a lot to commend it.
Toowoomba does not have a great deal of options for water, and all of the reports and work that I've seen so far suggests that the recycling option is the most viable one.
LISA MILLAR: But the concept of drinking someone else's waste, albeit treated, is creating a lot of fuss in Toowoomba and Malcolm Turnbull is calling for calm.
MALCOLM TURNBULL: There is no obstacle, scientific or biological obstacle to doing that. The issue really with using recycled water in the drinking stream is a psychological one, it's the yuck factor.
LISA MILLAR: Toowoomba's green thumbs are hoping the approval comes through quickly. It's known as the garden city but there's not a lot of gardening being done.
Deputy Mayor Joe Ramia:
JOE RAMIA: You can drive around Toowoomba today and you'd be flat out to find any flowers anywhere. The council has pulled up on doing summer plantings.
LISA MILLAR: Nursery owner Lorraine Schiller is trying not to let the lack of water get her down.
LORRAINE SCHILLER: We're trying to be really positive and try to get ... we don't want people to lose the art of gardening, we want them to look at it and say yes I can, I can grow my lettuce in a little pot out the side.
LISA MILLAR: But she's facing the toughest time in business she's ever seen.
LORRAINE SCHILLER: Well we haven't replaced, I haven't sacked, but I haven't replaced seven staff. We're down to bare skeleton now.
LISA MILLAR: She's not alone. The Queensland Nursery and Garden Industry Association says plant sales are down by as much as 40 per cent.
Chief Executive Officer Don Scotts:
DON SCOTTS: Well certainly there's a lack of gardening confidence. The public isn't confident about gardening because of the water restrictions, and many of them have stopped buying plants.
LISA MILLAR: The industry's lost more than 200 jobs in Queensland alone, and Don Scotts says although he's reluctant for another talkfest he thinks a forum on the water woes is desperately needed.
DON SCOTTS: I think there's no doubt that we are certainly talking about a very bad drought, but we're also, I think, talking about some lack of planning, if you like, in terms of our, the authorities that are responsible for our water supplies.
LISA MILLAR: Something else perhaps for Malcolm Turnbull's "to do" list.
MARK COLVIN: Lisa Millar.
9:59 PM, January 26, 2006
Friday, 27 January 2006. 10:16 (AEST)
Council hopes Turnbull can help water woes
Toowoomba City Council says it is hopeful the promotion of Malcolm Turnbull in a federal ministerial reshuffle will boost its chances of getting funding for its water recycling project.
Mr Turnbull will be sworn in as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, with special responsibility for water policy.
The Prime Minister is yet to sign off on national water commission funding for Toowoomba's Water Futures project.
Toowoomba deputy Mayor Joe Ramia says Mr Turnbull is a great advocate for water recycling. [Yes but not for drinking - it's up to the community to decide.]
"Hopefully the decision will be made sooner rather than later. I guess I'm a lot more hopeful today than I was probably three weeks ago with Malcolm Turnbull I guess driving the project for water not just for Toowoomba but for the whole of Toowoomba," he said. [not just for Toowoomba but for the whole of Toowoomba"??]
Mr Turnbull says while Toowoomba's water situation is desperate, he cannot guarantee the Water Futures project will get the funding.
"The case of Toowoomba has to be given a very high priority. As I said, I'm not in a position to give an answer on it," he said.
"It'll be a decision for the Government, but it is a very, very severe crisis in Toowoomba. They do not have the same number of water options that many other cities that are facing water shortages in Australia do have."
3:04 PM, January 27, 2006
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