Qld State Opposition comments on Qld Water Commission debacle ...
Hansard
4 June 2009
Mr SEENEY:
...
The report that I looked at first was on the Western Corridor Recycled Water Project which members are well aware of. The commission’s report indicates that that project cost Queenslanders $2.5 billion. They are the commission’s figures, not mine. It was supposed to provide 230 megalitres per day of recycled water. It is currently providing 40. It is a hopeless failure in terms of any sort of return on investment. It was supposed to provide 230 megalitres of recycled water a day. It is providing 40 megalitres at a cost of $2½ billion. That is the Water Commission’s report on that project.
I now turn to the Gold Coast Desalination Project. At the end of March the desalination project had cost $1.122 billion. It was producing no water. The commission says that it had been tested to capacity and then shut down. Members from the Gold Coast have raised in this House a number of concerns about the performance of the desalination plant.
Next is the southern regional water pipeline which cost $833 million. That is almost another billion dollars. It was supposed to transport 130 megalitres of water a day to Brisbane. At the end of March its peak performance was 70 megalitres a day. It had achieved just over half of its design capacity. There are a number of other projects along the same lines.
The Moreton Bay Regional Council substitute recycled water project cost $41 million and produced no water at all.
I now turn to the Gold Coast Desalination Project. At the end of March the desalination project had cost $1.122 billion. It was producing no water. The commission says that it had been tested to capacity and then shut down. Members from the Gold Coast have raised in this House a number of concerns about the performance of the desalination plant.
Next is the southern regional water pipeline which cost $833 million. That is almost another billion dollars. It was supposed to transport 130 megalitres of water a day to Brisbane. At the end of March its peak performance was 70 megalitres a day. It had achieved just over half of its design capacity. There are a number of other projects along the same lines.
The Moreton Bay Regional Council substitute recycled water project cost $41 million and produced no water at all.
The Bribie Borefields Project cost $43 million and produced no water at all.
Just in that list of projects the Water Commission had spent $4½ billion to produce 40 megalitres of water a day—to produce a little bit of recycled water to pipe to the power stations and to provide water to government owned corporations that were, I believe, forced to use it.
Just in that list of projects the Water Commission had spent $4½ billion to produce 40 megalitres of water a day—to produce a little bit of recycled water to pipe to the power stations and to provide water to government owned corporations that were, I believe, forced to use it.
Some $4½ billion is the Water Commission’s tally on projects that have basically not met their targets—have not even gone close to meeting their targets.
The truth is that the bill before the House tonight to restructure the Water Commission has been brought in because the Water Commission has been a screaming failure. The Water Commission has failed dismally in properly providing or securing our water supplies for the future. What it did was succeed in the government’s prime aim for the Water Commission and that was to build a public relations machine to protect the government from the fallout of the water crisis that afflicted Brisbane and South-East Queensland at the time.
The staff levels of the Water Commission blew out to 120-odd staff members, most of whom were engaged in producing public relations publications to protect the government from the political wrath that should have been directed towards it.
The truth is that the bill before the House tonight to restructure the Water Commission has been brought in because the Water Commission has been a screaming failure. The Water Commission has failed dismally in properly providing or securing our water supplies for the future. What it did was succeed in the government’s prime aim for the Water Commission and that was to build a public relations machine to protect the government from the fallout of the water crisis that afflicted Brisbane and South-East Queensland at the time.
The staff levels of the Water Commission blew out to 120-odd staff members, most of whom were engaged in producing public relations publications to protect the government from the political wrath that should have been directed towards it.
In terms of delivering anything that was going to secure water supplies for South-East Queensland, the Water Commission spent, just in the list of projects that I read out, some $4½ billion to produce next to nothing.
posted by Concerned Ratepayer at 1:39 PM
5 Comments:
Mr Seeney: This $4½ billion would be fairly handy for the Treasurer to have at the moment when he is considering a budget in two weeks time. But $4½ billion has been blown to produce some 40 megalitres of recycled water to supply to the power stations that really do not need it and did not want it.
Mr Rickuss: $5,625,000 a megalitre.
6:08 PM, June 05, 2009
Mr MESSENGER:
I am coming up to my time limit, but I have to relate a conversation that I had with people from the Burnett when they were describing the politicians who were responsible for our water management.
They asked, ‘Why is the Premier so reactive? What did she do when she was a child? Did she go to school and grab canteens from all the other schoolchildren, dip them into the toilet to fill them up and maybe put little fluoride tablets in their canteens? Did they give her $10 worth of pocket money and she spent $20?’ This is what we have. We have a Premier who has mismanagement in her DNA. She is reliving some sort of childhood fantasy.
7:52 PM, June 05, 2009
I would like to add that it has cost $41/2 billion to build this water infrastructure , part of which is a recycle sewage plant that 70% of the community never and still does not want.
It is a white elephant.
11:18 PM, June 05, 2009
Multiple recycled water plants ...
11:42 AM, June 10, 2009
Nobody wants it especially after the fluoride debarcle - you cannot trust people behind the machines and the science
9:14 PM, June 11, 2009
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