Drink it or be damned - Federal MP tells Toowoomba ...

... but my electorate in Sydney won't have to.

An extraordinary day in the Toowoomba water debate, highlighted by an almighty dummy spit from a Federal MP.

A politician who refuses to speak to voters who will be affected by his decisions and takes steps to ensure he is not contacted again.

Extraordinary and quite damaging to the Federal Liberal Party.

An excerpt from The Australian:

Recycle or you're on your own: MP

By Selina Mitchell

21 July 2006

The Howard Government has been accused of blackmailing the residents of a drought-ravaged Queensland town into supporting the recycling of effluent for drinking water.

The Parliamentary Secretary for Water, Malcolm Turnbull, has warned the people of Toowoomba that if they overwhelmingly vote no in a referendum next week on recycling effluent, they will not get a cent of federal money to help solve the town's water woes.

The federal Government has promised to provide $23 million towards a $68 million Toowoomba water-recycling plant to treat effluent to drinking standards - but only if the local community provides its majority support.

The city will vote on July 29 on the council plan to source 25 per cent of its drinking water from recycled sewage.

"The only safe assumption is that there will be no federal funding for alternative projects," Mr Turnbull said yesterday.

"They would be free to apply, but based on the information we have on other options to date, they wouldn't meet the funding requirements - they are not viable."

Millionaire businessman and former mayor Clive Berghofer, who is leading the no campaign, accused Mr Turnbull of blackmail.

Mr Berghofer said Toowoomba was a guinea pig for a water treatment process that had not been trialled anywhere else in the world.

He said alternative options, such as piping in water from bore licence holders or sourcing water from the production of coal seam gas, were not as expensive as independent reports had suggested they were.

Source - The Australian - Recycle or you're on your own: MP.


And this is what Federal Minister (and Member for Groom) Macfarlane said (Chronicle 15 July 2006):

If the July poll came out in favour of the "No" case, Mr Macfarlane said it would fall to council to choose another option of which there were "plenty".

"They may or may not be expensive depending on which one they go for, and they may or may not be innovative enough that they will garner Federal Government support," Mr Macfarlane said.

"But if there is another application and it fits within the (National Water Commission) guidelines it will certainly have my whole-hearted support and I’d be pretty confident I could get some money for it."


So you have Mr Turnbull and Mayor Thorley maintaining their rather tired line that there are no other options and, even if there were, they'd be no Federal government funding.

And you have Mr Macfarlane saying there ARE other options and there's a good chance of Federal government funding.

And then you have the State opposition saying that no Federal government funding is even required for some of their options.

Interesting ...