MP Turnbull clarifies his position ...

MP Malcolm Turnbull is quoted in today's Courier Mail as saying:

"I am an advocate of recycling. I believe it is safe to introduce it into the drinking water stream."

"I support it being used for drinking if circumstances make that the best solution and the community favours it."

Here are his quotes from 2005:

8 November 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 - MP Turnbull's website.

24 July 2005

"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.

Turnbull is somewhat consistent in his views - he thinks it is safe to drink (others are less likely to agree on this point) - he doesn't want to drink it in Sydney (where he lives) - and he thinks it is up to the community to decide whether they want to drink it.