[Greens-Media] Vic Greens reject Libs motion on desalination

[Elizabeth.Ingham at parliament.vic.gov.au]

Wednesday 18 April 2007

VICTORIAN GREENS REJECT LIBS MOTION ON DESALINATION

Greens MLCs have rejected a motion by the Liberals for a parliamentary 
inquiry into the desalination option.

"We reckon desalination is a dud and there's plenty of evidence for that. 
Options such as industrial reuse of water, water recycling and stormwater 
management all offer better, cheaper options," said Greg Barber, the 
Greens member for Northern Metropolitan Region.

"The Liberals should check out the report by the Australian Conservation 
Foundation, showing even an expanded water tank program could beat 
desalination, without all the environmental negatives," Mr Barber said.

"Even a 125 megalitre per day desalination plant would produce up to a 
quarter of a million tonnes of CO2 equivalent each year and we don't need 
that when we are trying to get Victoria's greenhouse emissions going down 
rather than up," Mr Barber said.

" What we need in Melbourne is to set targets for water efficiency, break 
them down across the various sectors of the economy and get on with 
implementing them.  Even better would be to end logging in the mountain 
forests which provide our water.  Young regrowth trees from clearfelling 
suck up heaps of water, leaving less for our rivers and dams," Mr Barber 
said.

"The proposal for a desalination plant in Sydney was rejected by an upper 
house inquiry of that State's parliament.  The NSW government-appointed 
group chaired by Clean Up Australia founder Ian Kiernan described 
desalination as the 'least favored and least acceptable' option for 
securing Sydney's water supply," Mr Barber said.

Speaking in Parliament today, Mr Barber described a desalination plant as 
a quick fix, high cost, high tech, magic bullet solution, with a photo 
opportunity.  By contrast, the Greens were calling for lower risk 
solutions that lead to better outcomes.  He described the water savings 
from reduced consumption as "negaliltres" rather than "megalitres". 

For further comment: Greg Barber 0433 044 771

*************************************
Liz Ingham
Office of Colleen Hartland MLC
9651 8413 / 0409 333 595

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