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.

In calling in the Cotter Dam Development Application, Mr Barr has poured a large bucket of cold water on his own independent statutory authority, and has thrown in a massive dose of ‘politics into planning’.

“The Minister must explain why he has called in this project. Is it because he doesn’t trust ACTPLA to make the assessment? Does Mr Barr suddenly think that he has better skills to make a decision on the environmental impacts of such a large proposal?” Shane Rattenbury, ACT Greens Environment spokesperson said today.

“The Minister claims he has done this to ‘keep the politics out of planning’. The problem is no one knows what the ‘politics’ is. What exactly is the ‘politics’ of the Cotter Development?”

The Greens would like to see call-ins become disallowable, instead of decisions on such large projects of benefit to the community being put in the hands of just one politician.

“This is the first proposal to properly use the full EIS process under the new Planning and Development Act, yet the Minister has already decided that he knows better.”

“It is time for the Environment Department to be involved in environmental planning decisions. Environmental impact assessments should be put out of reach of the Planning Minister.”

“It is unclear what advice has led Mr Barr to this decision, but he should be clear about his rationale.”

“To make matters worse, Mr Barr is also undermining the credibility of ACTEW, who have put extensive effort into addressing the environmental concerns at the Cotter Dam expansion. This project should be subject to full public scrutiny of the standard planning processes.”

“The Minister constantly claims he wants to ‘take the politics out of planning’. Based on Mr Barr’s actions this year, this statement is increasingly wrong:

Minister Barr (re Telopea Park School – 10 Feb 2009): “I would indicate to Ms Hunter and to the Assembly that, as planning minister, I have never used the call-in powers… as a fundamental principle, I reject the notion of politics getting into planning.”

Minister Barr (re Hospital Car park call in – 29 May 2009): “I have decided to call-in the applications and consider them myself in order to keep politics out of planning.”

“When it comes to politics in planning, Mr Barr is undoubtedly the champion.” Mr Rattenbury said.