Ken Ticehurst (Dobell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today is National Water Day and it is a timely reminder to us to consider water. Water is a critical issue on the Central Coast. It is not a federal obligation to provide water. Water is supposedly delivered by local governments and also state governments. State Labor have failed the people of the Central Coast, hence my involvement. The last move that state Labor made to do something about water on the Central Coast was when they tried to have Sydney Water take over the Central Coast-Wyong Water Authority. The New South Wales Premier, Morris Iemma—

Andrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Minister for Vocational and Further Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

‘Morris Minor’.

Ken Ticehurst (Dobell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

‘Morris Minor’, that is right. He takes the view that the Central Coast is the population overload area for Sydney. This is not true in any sense of the imagination. They have done no proper infrastructure planning. We have had thousands of people move into the area, particularly in Dobell, in the last 10 years. Nothing of a major infrastructure project has been created. Yet new home buyers are being fleeced by up to 25 per cent of the purchase price of a house with various taxes, stamp duties on loans, mortgages and also contributions to local requirements.

During this last election campaign, the state Labor government wanted to build Tillegra dam on the Hunter. Premier Iemma reckoned that he knew the situation was desperate on the Central Coast. We are down to 13 per cent in our water supply. Tillegra dam—even if it does happen—will do nothing for 10 or 15 years. They do not even own the land on which to put the dam and now a group up in the Hunter have made note of the fact that where they want to put the dam is on a fault line—the same fault line that caused earthquakes in Newcastle some years ago. So that really is another con.

What will happen? Hunter Water provides millions of dollars to the state government in revenues from water. They want the Central Coast to be indebted to Hunter forever and a day by stitching us up for probably an extra 90c a kilolitre over and above what we can provide water for in our local area.

The Central Coast Water Authority has introduced a plan called Water 2050. This is a follow-up to a plan that was introduced in 1975 by the public works department. It outlines the solutions for water issues on the Central Coast. To complete that plan we need approval from the state government; they have taken over planning. They need to immediately give authority for the local water utility to put in this link between Mangrove and Mardi Dam, and they need to increase the water sharing that can be taken off the Wyong River, because the catchment area puts water into Mardi. That is what we need. Water tanks are not a real solution. We need to look at grey water recycling because you can use that every day of the week. (Time expired)

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In accordance with standing order 103, the time for members’ statements has concluded.