SEQ recycled water - Beattie's political solution ..
Premier Beattie knows his numbers.
He knows that the introduction of recycled water into Wivenhoe Dam is deeply unpopular. He knows that the March plebiscite would have returned a resounding No vote.
What to do?
Backflip and try to hang your party's political opponents out to dry at the same time.
"He said Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman and Prime Minister John Howard, both Liberals, had supported it."
See - Beattie backflip.
Premier Beattie's decision merely postpones the recycled water vote until the next Council elections in 2008, something the Mayors were keen to avoid.
Brisbane Lord Mayor Newman, currently in favour of recycled water, faces a tough task getting re-elected on a platform of drinking recycled water. Newman's Labor opponents will be pleased, with good prospects for retaking the position of Mayor.
Toowoomba's Mayor Di Thorley, while giving the outward appearance that the cancellation of the March poll is her achievement and a victory for her ill-fated recycled water project, will be quietly contemplating retirement. Premier Beattie's decision means that the 2008 Toowoomba City Council election will be fought on the issue of whether Toowoomba should connect to Wivenhoe Dam, something not contemplated until 2011-2012. (Remember, there's no love lost between Beattie and Thorley after her disastrous referendum effort.)
In some ways, Premier Beattie's backflip is a victory for Toowoomba. The city voted a resounding No to Mayor Thorley's ill-fated recycled water project (which would have ultimately bankrupted the city) and saw no reason to vote again before the 2008 Council elections to sweep Mayor Thorley and her gaggle of Yes councillors out of office.
For the rest of SEQ, Premier Beattie's plan involves high levels of recycled water and no testing period. This is a world first experiment. The people of SEQ deserve better than to have the Premier make them the experimental lab rats for the recycled water industry which wishes to push its technology onto Australia ...
posted by Concerned Ratepayer at 9:51 AM
6 Comments:
Another Beattie political masterstroke. Just before the next State election he (or Bligh if she has taken over by then) will announce that the deeply unpopular recycled water will not be put into Wivenhoe and will just be used for industry and agriculture. "Vote for us because we saved you from drinking recycled water!" There's 60% plus of the vote in Southeast Queensland for Labor.
This is certainly a political option now available to them.
12:34 PM, January 28, 2007
From ABC News (annotated):
Water backflip the result of Govt failures: Flegg
The Queensland Opposition says the vote on recycled drinking water had become such a farce that it was no surprise Premier Peter Beattie abandoned it.
In a stunning turnaround, Mr Beattie has broken his promise for a plebiscite on the issue in south-east Queensland.
He says the drought has become so bad that there is no longer any choice but for recycled water to be mixed with drinking supplies once the necessary pipeline is built in late 2008.
But Liberal leader Dr Bruce Flegg says the weather is not the only reason why there is no other option.
"The Beattie Government has so comprehensively failed to deliver water infrastructure of any kind - dams, grids, desalination, and in particular, recycled water to power stations and industry - that we've now reached the point that there isn't a choice," he said.
Meanwhile the man who led the campaign against drinking recycled sewage in Toowoomba, Clive Berghofer, says Mr Beattie is treading on dangerous ground by abandoning the plebiscite.
Mr Berghofer says politicians are just ducking for cover because they failed to plan for growth in the south-east.
He says there will be huge opposition to it as people are not interested in drinking recycled water.
"You go to a restaurant and your coffee is made out of it and your food is cooked in it," he said.
"One of the things that concerns me greatly - and it's happened in Toowoomba already - KR Darling Downs is leaving ... [the] Japanese won't buy our product if it's washed in recycled water and it's going to do an awful lot of damage in my opinion to the food industry."
'No choice'
But Mr Beattie maintains there is no choice and the way must be cleared for the early introduction of recycled water to Queensland homes.
"We've always said whatever the vote, we would use purified recycled water in emergency situations and the reality is that time has come," he said.
Brisbane's Acting Mayor David Hinchcliffe agrees there is no alternative.
"I think people will accept that, some will accept it more reluctantly than others," he said.
Toowoomba Mayor Di Thorley says drinking recycled water it is safe and sensible.
"We're about five months on now from our vote and we've still got no water - there's nothing in the catchment, so I think people are going to see we don't really have a lot of options," she said. [Can anyone believe she is still going on about there being no other options!]
Water experts say the Queensland Government must now make the purity of recycled water a priority.
Professor Paul Greenfield, who heads an expert advisory panel to the Water Commission, says ensuring quality will be the key.
"We haven't seen all the detailed designs but providing world's best practice is followed, the quality of the water coming out of the recycling plant will be extremely high and will generate a water that is actually as pure, if not purer, than the water that goes into the dams already," he said.
Mr Beattie will outline plans for recycled water introduction later today, with the new water grid for it expected to be ready by late next year.
1:34 PM, January 28, 2007
I cannot believe the arrogance of some people. So its now ignorant and stupid for us to not want to drink the stuff and it is a great solution with no drawbacks! A solution to what, the drought, no it is not! You should educate yourself onionpants! this is just an excuse to charge us more for the water we use as is the case in a part of Dallas where there recycling scheme has tripled the cost of there water. If Beattie was serious enough about the water crisis he would be building a desal plant for Brisbane. The drought is not going to efffect that water but without rain Wivenhoe will dry up even with that recycled crap put back in it! Don't let them fool you! They are still relying on rain to get them through this self created mess or are they going to spend millions piping water from the Gold Coast desal plant when Wivenhoe dries up. God help us if the drought lasts that long as Toowoombas dams are still at 17% after 8 years of bad drought and water mismanagemnet - shows us how valuable our dams really are and we should not risk them by putting recycled effluent into them which has yet to be proven safe - we cannot afford to have them offline!
2:57 PM, January 28, 2007
Ask Premier Beattie where is going to locate his evaporation ponds as in the Toowoomba scheme they needed 30 acres of ponds and we are 100 thousand people.
Brisbane is a city of 2 million.
That's a lot of salt!!!!
Thorley was to sell her salty water to the Acland coal mines.
This is always about money.
This is not a clever plan as recycled sewage water is not an endless solution but others are.
People should march in the streets.
Beattie has failed you or water, hospitals, education and roads.
3:18 PM, January 28, 2007
Beattie may pump his RO waste stream out to sea for the Luggage Point plant but unclear about the others.
6:38 PM, January 28, 2007
Beattie has come up with the perfect solution to south east qld population growth - recycled water for drinking.
7:00 PM, January 28, 2007
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