A REFERENDUM will be held in 2008 to decide if people in southeast Queensland should drink recycled sewage water, despite yesterday's overwhelming No vote in Toowoomba.
Premier Peter Beattie today will announce the special poll for March 29, 2008, to coincide with local government elections.
Mr Beattie, who can fulfill the referendum promise only if he wins the next state election, said he was disappointed that Toowoomba voters had rejected the recycled water plan – but that would not end the debate.
Almost 62 per cent of Toowoomba voters were against the proposal, with just over 38 per cent voting Yes.
"Just because Toowoomba said No, that does not rule it out for southeast Queensland. I want the people to decide this issue. But even if they vote Yes for recycled water, we would only use it if it's absolutely necessary."
Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg said the State Government's water policy had been dealt a major blow by the No vote in Toowoomba.
Millionaire property developer Clive Berghofer, who bankrolled the No vote, declared the result a victory for common sense
"They say it is the cheapest and the best option but it is no good if nobody wants it.".
"We will have 20 months of informed debate. We need to have a long education campaign, a long and sensible debate." Mr Beattie said a Yes vote in the 2008 referendum would see a connector pipe built in a matter of months to feed recycled water into Wivenhoe Dam.
If the voters rejected the move, the State Government would scrap plans to add treated sewage to the southeast's drinking water.
All outdoor watering could be banned as soon as October, when Level 4 water restrictions are expected to begin, because no major rain is forecast.
With drinking water in southeast Queensland set to run out by 2008 without significant rainfall, Mr Beattie said far-reaching and expensive measures were needed.
He wanted the water grid – a network of pipes transporting water from one corner of the state to the other – to be his legacy.
Mr Beattie set out his water timeline this week: pipelines from Luggage Point providing recycled water to power stations at Swanbank (2007) and Tarong (2008); the Gold Coast desalination plant (2009); the controversial Wyaralong and Traveston Crossing dams (2011); Traveston-Sunshine Coast-Brisbane pipeline (2012).
"This water grid will guarantee our future. It will be more important than anything," he said.
There will be people who hate me to the day I die, though, for Traveston Crossing and Wyaralong. But at the end of it all, people will see the sense of it."
I don't think i am real keen to have stuff caught in my teeth everytime i drink water... How about everyone else what do you think?????
Premier Peter Beattie today will announce the special poll for March 29, 2008, to coincide with local government elections.
Mr Beattie, who can fulfill the referendum promise only if he wins the next state election, said he was disappointed that Toowoomba voters had rejected the recycled water plan – but that would not end the debate.
Almost 62 per cent of Toowoomba voters were against the proposal, with just over 38 per cent voting Yes.
"Just because Toowoomba said No, that does not rule it out for southeast Queensland. I want the people to decide this issue. But even if they vote Yes for recycled water, we would only use it if it's absolutely necessary."
Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg said the State Government's water policy had been dealt a major blow by the No vote in Toowoomba.
Millionaire property developer Clive Berghofer, who bankrolled the No vote, declared the result a victory for common sense
"They say it is the cheapest and the best option but it is no good if nobody wants it.".
"We will have 20 months of informed debate. We need to have a long education campaign, a long and sensible debate." Mr Beattie said a Yes vote in the 2008 referendum would see a connector pipe built in a matter of months to feed recycled water into Wivenhoe Dam.
If the voters rejected the move, the State Government would scrap plans to add treated sewage to the southeast's drinking water.
All outdoor watering could be banned as soon as October, when Level 4 water restrictions are expected to begin, because no major rain is forecast.
With drinking water in southeast Queensland set to run out by 2008 without significant rainfall, Mr Beattie said far-reaching and expensive measures were needed.
He wanted the water grid – a network of pipes transporting water from one corner of the state to the other – to be his legacy.
Mr Beattie set out his water timeline this week: pipelines from Luggage Point providing recycled water to power stations at Swanbank (2007) and Tarong (2008); the Gold Coast desalination plant (2009); the controversial Wyaralong and Traveston Crossing dams (2011); Traveston-Sunshine Coast-Brisbane pipeline (2012).
"This water grid will guarantee our future. It will be more important than anything," he said.
There will be people who hate me to the day I die, though, for Traveston Crossing and Wyaralong. But at the end of it all, people will see the sense of it."
I don't think i am real keen to have stuff caught in my teeth everytime i drink water... How about everyone else what do you think?????
