Damn polling, just build dams

Peter Farago
REPORTS the Bracks Government has paid private pollsters to gauge public opinion on building new dams is an example of a government that’s scared to make a decision.
Governments are employed to make tough decisions and implement them, especially, as Labor’s election campaign says, ‘when it matters’.
Victoria is in the grips of one of the worst droughts in living memory.
Geelong, like many regional areas, is under stage four water restrictions.
So what is the Government doing? Asking voters their opinion on building dams in Victoria.
On this basis it seems State Government is intent on making its job about looking good and staying ahead of public opinion instead of making tough decisions for the good of all Victorians.
Water was one of the most important issues on the hustings before the last election.
Both Labor and Liberal parties carried significant water resources management policies into the November poll.
Significantly, while the Liberal policy focused on a desalination plant and dam for Melbourne and accessing Ot-ways borewater for Geelong, the Government rubbished it as too expensive.
Yet Water Minister John Thwaites has since admitted Victoria would have to look at desalination.
If the Government is now considering public opinion on dams, it seems time to question whether Labor thinks its own policies will hold enough water to supply growing regions.
Last week the Independent reported two former state ministers calling on State Government to build a dam at Dewing Creek to increase Geelong’s water supply by 700 megalitres a year.
A State Government report recommends diverting water from Dewing Creek to the Wurdee Boluc inlet channel, leading to Geelong’s main water supply.
Although the proposed dam flies in the face of State Government’s no-dams policy, early action would provide an early fillip to the region’s dwindling water supplies.
Last month’s deluge, which dumped 100 millimetres of rain on Barwon Water’s West Barwon Reservoir, would have provided quite a boost to the city’s water supply instead of eventually running out to the ocean.
Other Government measures have yet to approach the starting block.
While water continues to flow under the bridge, it seems like business as usual for the Bracks Government in its drive to be more spin than substance.