Book 8 - Parliament of Victoria

GOVERNMENT: ELECTION COMMITMENTS
1628 COUNCIL Wednesday, 1 June 2011
with mergers with other schools in their areas in good
faith after the previous government said, ‘If you get
these mergers done, we will fund you’, but absolutely
nothing has come forth. Now we are in a position
where we have to face up to the schools and say, ‘We
will do the best we can, even though your funding has
not been put into the forward estimates, even though we
have been given absolutely no warning as to how these
projects are supposed to be funded’. We have handed
down a responsible budget. We have used the money of
Victorian taxpayers to the best of our ability to ensure
that they can take some comfort in knowing that the
people in control of the budget will not be totally
consumed with the idea of spin. We have not made
half-baked verbal promises that come down to no
substance in the budget in the end.
We heard previously from the former Treasurer,
Mr Lenders, who said the people of Victoria have paid
for a north–south pipeline and it is sitting in the ground
out the back. I will go through the process that led to
the north–south pipeline. The idea was put to the
previous Premier, Premier Brumby, who went to the
2006 election saying, ‘We will never pipe water over
the Great Dividing Range. We will not do that; we do
not have to do that — it is ridiculous’. He also went to
that election saying, ‘We will never build a
desalination plant’. That was four and a half years ago;
within six months Premier Brumby had reversed that
decision, without environmental effects studies,
without any worries about the social impact on the
Goulburn Valley of taking the water away, without
even looking at it — —
Hon. M. P. Pakula — What damage would it do
now? It is full of water up there.
Mr DRUM — Melbourne’s dams are full of water
too, Mr Pakula, but you have tunnel vision — you keep
your head forward, making sure that whatever
criticisms come your way you will bulldoze and bluff
your way through this whole process.
When it comes to the accuracy of the claims about the
extent of the savings achieved in the Goulburn Valley
through the billion-dollar investment in the irrigation
system — we thought that was a fair enough
investment too, by the way — the lies and deceit
coming from the Labor government and the water
authorities have been proven beyond doubt.
Hon. M. P. Pakula interjected.
Mr DRUM — Mr Pakula can sit there and pretend
to know something about this issue, but I know he
knows nothing about it — do not worry about that. I
know he knows nothing about the deceit that went on
through the water authorities. He knows nothing about
the deceit that went on with the Northern Victoria
Irrigation Renewal Project. That will be exposed in
good time.
Hon. M. P. Pakula — How’s that?
Mr DRUM — It will be exposed when the
Ombudsman brings down his report, Mr Pakula.
Hon. M. P. Pakula — So you know what’s in it, do
you?
Mr DRUM — I know what went on. If he gets to
the truth, he will expose it. The former Treasurer has
been saying, ‘We have this investment called the
north–south pipeline sitting in the ground. Why don’t
you pump the water out of it?’. The idea is that not
pumping water out of the north–south pipeline will
make Melbourne water bills dearer, but using the
pipeline is the most expensive way to get water, with
the exception of desalination. The cheapest way of
getting water to households is via dams and the
traditional system, and the dams are more than half full
now.
Sitting suspended 1.00 p.m. until 2.02 p.m.
Mr DRUM — Prior to the suspension for lunch we
had the opportunity to touch briefly on the issue of the
north–south pipeline. The former Treasurer was in here
saying that somehow or other the current policy for
Victoria — —
Hon. M. P. Pakula — I apologise, then.
Mr DRUM — I say to Mr Pakula that we have
asked the former government to apologise numerous
times, but in most things to do with the north–south
pipeline the former government was absolutely deaf to
the views of northern Victorians.
Hon. M. P. Pakula — I was actually talking to
Mr Dalla-Riva.
Mr DRUM — However, the current policy of the
coalition government is to leave the north–south
pipeline unused, except in the case of exceptional or
critical human need. The former Treasurer will lose his
financial credibility, if he ever had any, if he thinks it is
more expensive for the people of Melbourne to access
dam water than it is for them to access water through a
pipeline that pumps water 70 kilometres uphill to the
Sugarloaf Reservoir. That is only the start of the
Melbourne reservoir system. That water has to then find
its way right around the suburbs of Melbourne.