Post by ppyenews on Feb 21, 2007 7:31:53 GMT -5
Welcome to ‘Talkback Topic’ – I’m Phillip Pye.
It is only a month away and people in New South Wales will be lining up at the polling booths to elect another State Government. There are issues aplenty that pollies from every nook & cranny in the State are tabling but easily the most important on the election agenda must be WATER. Premier Morris Iemma has made it very clear that there is no one solution on water. You need a plan that combines recycling, storm water harvesting, water savings, and a new dam on the Hunter and Central Coast, and of course desalination. Recycling is the key topic that appears to be creating more fuss than a pub without beer, many still, it seems are not happy with the prospect of possibly consuming water that has been re-constituted from sewerage. The fact is, it has been happening in other countries quite effectively for some time, California’s Orange County for starters has been using recycled water since 1975.
Morris Iemma and Opposition Leader Peter Debnam will continue to battle it out over their differing water policies, with Mr Iemma defending plans for a desalination plant and deriding Mr Debnam's announcement to spend $1 billion on water recycling. Morris Iemma says that "The Government will force industry to use the recycled water but Mr Debnam will force the residents of western Sydney to drink recycled sewage, a fairly brash assumption I think but there again with Liberals track record of other changes such as the Industrial Relations laws, you never know. The New South Wales Nationals leader Andrew Stoner has also focussed on measures to drought-proof regional areas by promising to beef up Chaffey dam near Tamworth, the Suma Park dam near Orange, and the Yass dam.
Are we not forgetting though, that although water is a very important matter there are other factors to consider, one in particular being Peter Debnam’s claim that he will shed 20,000 jobs from what he calls ‘The Ivory Towers’. Now to be honest, blatantly making such an election promise goes down in my book of political suicide. Mr Debman obviously wishes to use John Howard style tactics here which will be a huge issue at the next federal election. To be totally honest there are many issues that Mr Debnam has raised that portray exactly why there hasn’t been a NSW Liberal Government for a long time. The difference between Labor’s and Liberals water plan is that Labors plan is already underway. Construction is happening. Mr Debnam's plan, by contrast, is about procrastinating until the dam levels hit 20 per cent. Keep it up Mr Debnam, that’s if you have your mind set on losing that is.
I’m Phillip Pye.
It is only a month away and people in New South Wales will be lining up at the polling booths to elect another State Government. There are issues aplenty that pollies from every nook & cranny in the State are tabling but easily the most important on the election agenda must be WATER. Premier Morris Iemma has made it very clear that there is no one solution on water. You need a plan that combines recycling, storm water harvesting, water savings, and a new dam on the Hunter and Central Coast, and of course desalination. Recycling is the key topic that appears to be creating more fuss than a pub without beer, many still, it seems are not happy with the prospect of possibly consuming water that has been re-constituted from sewerage. The fact is, it has been happening in other countries quite effectively for some time, California’s Orange County for starters has been using recycled water since 1975.
Morris Iemma and Opposition Leader Peter Debnam will continue to battle it out over their differing water policies, with Mr Iemma defending plans for a desalination plant and deriding Mr Debnam's announcement to spend $1 billion on water recycling. Morris Iemma says that "The Government will force industry to use the recycled water but Mr Debnam will force the residents of western Sydney to drink recycled sewage, a fairly brash assumption I think but there again with Liberals track record of other changes such as the Industrial Relations laws, you never know. The New South Wales Nationals leader Andrew Stoner has also focussed on measures to drought-proof regional areas by promising to beef up Chaffey dam near Tamworth, the Suma Park dam near Orange, and the Yass dam.
Are we not forgetting though, that although water is a very important matter there are other factors to consider, one in particular being Peter Debnam’s claim that he will shed 20,000 jobs from what he calls ‘The Ivory Towers’. Now to be honest, blatantly making such an election promise goes down in my book of political suicide. Mr Debman obviously wishes to use John Howard style tactics here which will be a huge issue at the next federal election. To be totally honest there are many issues that Mr Debnam has raised that portray exactly why there hasn’t been a NSW Liberal Government for a long time. The difference between Labor’s and Liberals water plan is that Labors plan is already underway. Construction is happening. Mr Debnam's plan, by contrast, is about procrastinating until the dam levels hit 20 per cent. Keep it up Mr Debnam, that’s if you have your mind set on losing that is.
I’m Phillip Pye.