Please read this article by Mary Crooks and Wayne Chamley of Watermark Australia
Government’s water projects need independent scrutiny
It is a truism that the health of a democracy is measured by the degree of transparency attached to government decision-making. A key institution for ensuring some level of transparency is the Office of the Auditor General.
The Bass Council recently stopped negotiations with the State Government because it had been impossible to glean any substantive detail from the Government regarding the proposed $3.9 billion desalination plant at Wonthaggi. Likewise, it is impossible to verify the expected water savings claimed by the Government in relation to the Food Bowl modernization project. Yet, such verification is crucial to determining whether there can be the amount of water savings available for piping to the Sugarloaf Reservoir via the proposed North-South pipeline.
These three water projects represent massive amounts of public expenditure on major new infrastructure. At the present time there is insufficient inform