QLD Hansard 9 May 2006

Mr SPRINGBORG (10.39 am): My question without notice is to the minister for natural resources. I refer to the government’s self-created water crisis, caused by eight years of systematic and systemic neglect of water infrastructure in Queensland, and to my budget reply speech of 2004 in which I indicated a commitment to a $1 billion water supply strategy.

A government member interjected.

Mr SPRINGBORG: He is so rude. Water is an important issue. Does the minister agree with the comments of his predecessor, Stephen Robertson, at the time that ‘building dams was just simply 1950s dinosaur thinking’?

Mr SPRINGBORG: My second question is to the minister for local government and environment. I refer to the government’s self-created water crisis, brought about by eight years of neglect of essential water infrastructure and to her address to the Water Loss Task Force in February last year. She told delegates—

“Dams are a bloke’s thing. All these blokes keep ringing me up saying they want dams. They want big dams. I keep telling them it’s all about management.”

Does the minister still agree that dams are just a bloke’s thing?

Mr SPRINGBORG: On the issue of water, we have seen this Premier and the government again thrashing around on decent water resource policy in Queensland. Let us not forget that only last year this government was condemning the coalition in Queensland which was wanting to build dams. The minister for natural resources at the time, Stephen Robertson, was running around saying, ‘It is dinosaurian. You do not build dams anymore. That is 1950s thinking.’ I do not know what the new approach for getting water is. I thought dams were always an integral part of any water resource, planning and delivery policy in this state along with other options which, frankly, we have always supported.

Mr SEENEY: It is an absurd notion to suggest that major water infrastructure should be delivered in such a way. It is in marked contrast to what ministers in the Beattie Labor government have had to say about dams in the past. On 18 June the former natural resources minister, Stephen Robertson, issued a media statement claiming—

“Mr Springborg wants to build dams on a political whim and leave the community and the environment to pay the price.”

The minister went on to say that ‘there is no sense building expensive dams’ and that building dams was ‘1950s dinosaur thinking’. Then on 17 January, just over a year ago, Mr Robertson once again issued a media statement headed ‘Springborg’s dam approach doesn’t hold water’. This antidam approach is coming from a man who is still a key figure in the cabinet and who no doubt still holds those views.

Mr Robertson was not the only minister who said that Queensland does not need dams. As the Leader of the Opposition illustrated this morning in question time, on 25 February 2005 the Fraser Coast Chronicle reported that the environment and local government minister, Desley Boyle, told an International Water Loss Task Force—

“… dams are a bloke’s thing. All these blokes keep ringing me up and saying they want dams. They want big dams. I keep telling them it’s about managing what we have got properly”

Hansard 30th Nov 2005

Hon. DM WELLS (Murrumba—ALP): Where we get the water also has an effect on its sustainability. Say, for example, we choose to get a greater proportion of the water from rainwater tanks and a lesser proportion out of the dams; then obviously we do not need to build so many dams. There is a vast range of things that we can do. The fact that some of the initiatives that the minister is proposing to the House in this particular legislation are undertaken over an extended period is no matter. We need to look at the full range of what we can do.

Mr CHOI (Capalaba—ALP): There are many hidden effects of excessive water consumption in this nation. Honourable members opposite keep asking for more dams to be built. I think the most important thing is to conserve water before we build more dams because building more dams would have severe environmental effects such as the destruction of wilderness, the creation of greenhouse gases from rotting vegetation, the reduction in stream flows and the degradation of ecological health. It is also extremely costly to build dams.

Mrs CARRYN SULLIVAN (Pumicestone—ALP): Many environmentalists have driven the debate on water and how best to conserve it, for a long time and their message to inform and educate has been listened to. The state government must be recognised for this initiative, because the less water we use in our appliances the less impact it will have on the environment. For example, more water-efficient appliances will reduce water and effluent discharge to waterways, which in turn could lower water supply and sewage treatment and pumping costs for local councils, which has to be good news. There are many more advantages, including less demand on water catchments, thereby deterring the building of new dams and other costly water infrastructure. But we need to be very serious about water conservation. I congratulate the minister and her staff for this initiative. We both know that it is not the be-all and end-all of water conservation, but I think it is a great step in the right direction. I commend the bill to the House.

Dr LESLEY CLARK (Barron River—ALP): The debate this afternoon has been good insofar as there has been bipartisan support for the actual legislation but it has also revealed, once again, the divide that exists in the views of people in relation to the wider issues of water supply. We have had people consistently on the other side calling for more dams to be built. I would like to use this opportunity to again put on the record my own view on this. In Cairns we do have a mayor who calls for dams to be built. We have had very long debate with regard to this. The chamber of commerce is of a similar view. We have had the least-cost water planning study, which identified future water supply for our community from the Barron River and the Mulgrave maquifer to be explored. We certainly are not going to be needing to build a dam any time soon. In fact, I do not believe we are ever going to build a dam because the future is the reuse of water and the recycling of water.

I commend the mayor of Toowoomba. I say to Di: just hold your nerve; you are doing the right thing.

Mr O’BRIEN (Cook—ALP): I think if we listened to members opposite on these matters we would think there was only one way to secure the future water supply in Queensland, and that is to build dam after dam after dam. They fail to realise that we need much more complicated strategies to address those sophisticated infrastructure needs as we move forward into the 21st century. We need to ensure that we are not just building dam after dam, because they have significant environmental impacts. We need to be much smarter in the way that we use water and in the way that we buy products that use water for our everyday life. We need to ensure that we are not putting environmental destruction all over vast areas of Queensland in this seemingly mindless vendetta to build more dams.

Hansard 20th Oct 2004

Hon. S. ROBERTSON (Stretton—ALP): The Gattonvale project demonstrates the Beattie government’s commitment to providing sustainable new water infrastructure to enhance water supply reliability. Contrast this responsible, practical approach with the ‘dam at all costs’ approach of the Opposition Leader and the National Party. Queensland is littered with National Party dams that never fill because they were not properly planned or sited in the first place.
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We are committed to long-term planning for our water supplies, particularly here in south-east Queensland. The member mentioned Glendower dam. Glendower dam is not off the agenda. What we do know through proper planning is that original assumptions about the yield of dams such as that are not what we thought. So what do we do? Go down the path and still build it knowing that we may not get the yield that we once had planned for? That would be an inappropriate and complete waste of taxpayers’ money.