ACT Greens Water spokesperson Shane Rattenbury has welcomed the referral of the Cotter Dam project to the Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission (ICRC) which the Greens recommended last Friday.

The Greens wrote to the Minister last week and suggested a referral would be the best way forward so the ICRC could fully assess the projects costs, why they had changed so significantly, the process for determining them and whether or not the Cotter Dam delivers value for money.

“We are pleased the Government took this suggestion seriously and believe that the terms of reference are broad enough to allow the Independent Commissioner to scrutinise the Cotter Dam cost blow-out thoroughly,” said Shane Rattenbury, ACT Greens Water spokesperson.

“The ICRC will have the expertise to assess the costs of this major engineering project with full access to documents including those that are commercial-in-confidence. They are independent, can hold public hearings, will call for public submissions, and at the completion of the inquiry, will deliver a public report.”

“It is unsophisticated of the Liberals to say that the only way for the parliament to conduct investigations is to do it themselves. Often there are better mechanisms and better qualified people that can undertake specific tasks and this is one such circumstance.”

In spite of the referral to the ICRC, the Greens remain concerned that ACTEW provided inaccurate information about the original $145m cost of the dam to the public and the Government which may have resulted in a dishonest or uninformed public debate about water policy options for the ACT.

The Greens will pursue this and other questions with ACTEW and the Ministers at the Annual reports hearings on 2nd December 2009.

ACT Greens Water spokesperson, Shane Rattenbury, has called for a more realistic debate when it comes to water security in the ACT.

“There are two issues – we need to have more realistic numbers when it comes to the projected cost of project, and also be more realistic about Canberra’s water future,” Mr Rattenbury said today.

“On cost, the massive increase in the budget was inevitable, and the earlier price figures given to the community were misleading at best.”

“During Estimates hearings in May 2009, ACTEW CEO Mark Sullivan made the following comments when asked about the cost of the Googong pipeline:

‘We tend to always have a low estimate at starts, despite people trying to encourage it to be as reasonable as possible. We have a peer review to have it confirmed.  Then by the time we get to this target out-turn cost, the TOC, we generally see a fairly large increase.’

“For the ACT Government to now claim they are disappointed or surprised by this new cost figure really begs some questions,” Rattenbury said.

“As for Canberra’s water future, Mark Sullivan on radio this morning talked about returning to watering our lawns and other similar uses of water.  The Greens believe it is dangerous to create this impression of ‘water utopia’.”

“Water inflow figures for our dams are at record lows, and with climate change and population growth, we cannot divert from water saving efforts in Canberra.  Our future is one with less water, and we must continue to modify our city to reflect that reality,” Mr Rattenbury said.

ACT Greens MLA Deb Foskey has argued that the Legislative Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee’s unanimous report into the ACT Auditor General’s inquiry into Rhodium Asset Solutions Ltd , released today, shows that the ACT Government needs to bite the bullet on shareholder responsibility.

“This Committee, which has a representative of each party in the Assembly, presented a unanimous report that sheeted blame home to all the players: staff, board and shareholders” Dr Foskey said today

“To quote from the conclusion of the report – “Management led by the former CEO, engaged in ill advised spending, treated company assets and business as personal benefits and failed to establish policies and practices of even a basic acceptable standard. The Board failed in its duty to supervise management and did not place in priority on addressing key e areas where they were aware of weaknesses. The shareholders, while not directly responsible for the day to day failures and questionable behaviour at Rhodium, failed to establish and communicate its expectations to the company.”

Dr Foskey went on to say:

“The take home message from the Assembly committee, which can only make recommendations to Government about government related responsibilities, is that shareholder responsibility for Territory Owned Corporations (TOCs) needs to be looked at more closely.”

“Those shareholders, being the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister, appointed the Board which still exists, and the Board appointed the CEO.”

“This report has implications for the other TOCs – ACTEW and ACTTAB – where the same shareholders may have a similar interpretation of their roles.”

“Given the crucial role of ACTEW in ensuring the provision of potable water to the ACT, it is important that the shareholders now review their responsibilities under the TOC Act so that ACT residents, whose interest they represent, can feel confidence in them” Dr Foskey said.

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The Public Accounts Committee is made up of Deb Foskey (Chair) Karen MacDonald (Deputy Chair) and Brendan Smyth.

ACT Greens MLA Deb Foskey expressed her delight with today’s announcement that ACTPLA will require a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) of ActewAGL’s gas fired power plant and data centre proposal.

“In May when the community was confronted by the original larger project, I called for the ACT Government to commit to a full EIS but it refused” Dr Foskey said today.

“Three months have gone by. The proposal has been downscaled and revamped, and now an EIS has been called for.”

“I’d like to congratulate ACTPLA and the Minister on taking the right steps eventually. But Government Ministers could have taken a more proactive approach on this front and committed to an EIS at a much earlier stage, since there were clearly significant environmental concerns”

“While the EIS has been called for at the allotted time in the established DA process, it was obvious it was needed back in May. The Planning Minister could have called for it then, thus reducing the potential for delay while the EIS was prepared.”

“I think ActewAGL will be distressed that the EIS is only being triggered now since the LAST thing they wanted was a delay. Perhaps in future it would serve them better to pay attention to the Greens rather than the Government when environmental impact needs to be assessed”

“I congratulate the local residents of Macarthur and Fadden for their work on raising issues of concern to them and the wider ACT community, and appreciate that Health Minister Katy Gallagher took her health portfolio seriously and showed leadership in Government.”

“All major projects need to be properly assessed in terms of health, environmental and social impact; and it is never adequate where that assessment is done by the project’s proponent,” Dr Foskey said.