Premier Anna Bligh executes a perfect backflip ...

Excerpt from the Australian:

Premier Anna Bligh executes a perfect backflip

27 November 2008

Backflips don't come much more spectacular than this.

Two weeks ago, Anna Bligh dismissed critics of her plan to add recycled sewage and industrial effluent to southeast Queensland's drinking water supply as cranks. The Premier described arguments being put by the Opposition and others as "kooky, wacky, voodoo science".

Some of those campaigning against recycled water may indeed be cranks, but eminent microbiologists and infrastructure experts who counselled caution cannot be so easily dismissed.

Their argument was that if the water situation were dire, a case for drinking recycled water could be made.

However, if conventional sources were available, recycled water should not be an option because of the risk, however small, of contaminants passing through the seven-stage screening process, or of contamination due to human error.

Bligh embraced the kooky, wacky science because southeast Queenslanders were becoming alarmed.

Residents accepted the introduction of recycled water last year when dam levels fell to record lows. Now people see how much water can be saved by slashing consumption, and the dams are filling again. They think the good times are back.

Last week, Bligh said opponents were illogical because if recycled water were unsafe, it would be more unsafe to add it to dams at lower rather than higher levels, because it would be more concentrated.

The proposition is reasonable but misses the critics' point that it should not be added at all unless necessary.

The Premier changed tack less than a month after The Australian began publishing a series of reports on the debate. The reports sparked television and radio coverage, with talkback radio callers venting mounting concerns.

Polling by the Government showed falling public support for recycling, and with a possible election early next year, Bligh opted to bury the matter.

In doing so, she went against Queensland Water Commission chief executive John Bradley, who had insisted the scheme would proceed unless the dams were full.

Some observers are surprised that the Government linked the recycling decision to its move to defer the construction of the Traveston Dam. Bligh had previously insisted that without Traveston, the need for recycled water would be even greater.

See - Bligh backflip.

Hardly a backflip - from putting recycled water into the dams at 40% to putting recycled water in the dams at 40% ...