Anna Bligh cancels recycled water plans for South East Qld ...

Bligh cancels water plans

1 April 2009

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh is expected to formally announce later today the cancellation of plans to have people in South East Queensland drink recycled water.

It follows revelations that former Attorney General Kerry Shine requested Perrier water for all Labor residents in his electorate who voted no at the 2006 recycled water poll.

Premier Bligh was said to be considering his request as a means of shoring up the Labor vote in Mr Shine's electorate of Toowoomba North ahead of the next State election.  However, incoming Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability Kate Jones was said to be outraged at the carbon emission cost of shipping bottles of Perrier from France to Toowoomba.

"While I am sympathetic to Kerry's need to shore up support with Toowoomba voters, I can't justify shipping all that water to Toowoomba," Ms Jones said.   

Ms Jones recognised that 62% of the voters in Toowoomba voted against recycled water in 2006 and that a fair proportion of these voters in Mr Shine's Toowoomba North electorate would be Labor supporters but she wouldn't change her mind.

Faced with her proposed Cabinet in disarray, Premier Bligh decided to cancel the whole recycled water experiment. 

"We'll be shipping Perrier for all the MPs to drink in Parliament so I personally didn't think it would be a big deal to ship more for the Labor voters of Toowoomba North," Premier Bligh said. "But I couldn't have had a Ministerial revolt even before they were sworn in.  So I decided it would be easier just to cancel our plans for potable reuse in South East Queensland".

Toowoomba Regional Council Mayor Peter Taylor said "It's a State government decision.  Our hands are tied.  I'm sure Premier Bligh will do the right thing for the people of Toowoomba North and the whole of Toowoomba."

Former Pure H2O spokesman and teacher Jeff Nolan expressed surprise at Mr Shine's request.  "I'm outraged that ALP voters in Toowoomba North would have received Perrier to drink.  I would not teach any child from a family who received the government Perrier.  They should just drink recycled water and be happy with it".

When asked what impact her decision would have on the Queensland Water Commission, Premier Bligh said: "I announced during the election campaign that I would fold the Water Commission into one of the government departments.  That remains my decision.  We will wind back its budget to zero and reallocate the staff to more relevant tasks like cleaning up the oil spill on the Coast".

A spokesperson at the Queensland Water Commission said all the staff were disappointed at Premier Bligh's decision and were now looking for new jobs.  A spokesperson for CADS Toowoomba said cancelling potable reuse was the right decision and long overdue. 

 
Former Toowoomba Mayor Di Thorley who championed potable reuse for Toowoomba and then resigned ahead of the March 2008 local government elections following her resounding defeat at the 2006 poll is somewhere in Tasmania and was unavailable for comment.

See - Bligh cancels water plans.