It occurs to Danny during DAY 2 just how committed this Government is to ramming this plant through given the fact that they have one Queens Counsel & one Special Counsel PLUS lawyers from Corrs Wesgarth Chambers PLUS DSE reps all over on their table. Watersheds’ representation might be smaller (two) but much fistier and they aren’t on the side of darkness and therefore we try to retain the faith that justice will prevail in the end!
Justice, natural justice was the cause for the day with our legal team challenging the fairness of the Government dumping a new 111 page, highly technical report by Dr Kerry Black, on everyone on Tuesday just 24 hours before they put him on the stand. It seems its OK for all of us to have to put our submissions in on time by 30th September but the Government doesn’t have to live by the same rules! Anyway, the Inquiry agreed that Watershed should have time to actually read the report so Dr Black will be brought back to the Inquiry on our day (29th Oct) for cross examination. I think the Inquiry response was that Watershed had “raised a very fair point”. Blow me down with a feather!
The first expert witness for the day was Mr. Greg Finlayson from GHD who managed to say “I can’t answer that” about 24 times during the course of questioning after the presentation that rehashed the same old information. Now we at least have a better understanding of what is the “Reference Project” as compared to “Variations to the Reference Project” and “Options” ! It appears that the “variations” haven’t been investigated or evaluated to the same extent as the “reference project” but at least more than the “options”. Yet since we don’t know what the final design of the plant will be it’s still up to the bidders which of the three they include in their bid, or something else perhaps!
Also became clear that the connections into Westernport Water or South Gippsland Water are not part of the Reference Project and IF they were connected then the region would appear to have to take flouridated water as the chemicals are put into the water prior to it being pushed out into the 85 KM pipe. It’s questionable also whether the $3.1 billion (minimum as we know) even covers any connection to our region so when you next read Mr. Holding saying the desal plant is also for securing our water security then think again!
Questions also raised about where the water goes from the transfer pipe if they have to “de-water” (remove the water from the transfer pipe) at some point. Does it go into the rivers OR streams OR back into the ocean after it has been treated with chlorine/flouride etc. Answer – there hasn’t been any real investigation into the environmental impacts of dewatering. Surprised? No.
Also interesting to note that yet again the EPA had no questions for either of the expert witnesses. They must know everything already!
Keep watching this space and will let you know where to find the reports and more mountains of paper that are distributed each day. It’s clear that if you have any money left to invest these days, put it into printing for Government Inquiries – licence to print and print money!
Off to Day 3
