Claims in Melbourne’s Herald-Sun today that there are corrupt elements associated with the desal plant at Wonthaggi seem like a pretty flimsy attempt to influence voters not to elect Labor in the upcoming election.
As a Victorian I’m like most others in our state. Most of us know when we are being conned. Unlike voters in other states, we can see bullshit coming from a mile away. We don’t spook easily and we have very good memories.
The LNP promised to fix the hospital waiting lists, the ambulance service, the shortfall in police numbers and shut down the pipeline. They promised to make Victorian teachers the highest paid in the country. They also opposed building the desal plant. Then, as it happened, the 12 year drought we experienced came to an end, just as the desal plant was completed, making it appear as if it wasn’t necessary in the first place. Our water storages at this point began to recover from a low of 32% of capacity.
Despite all this the LNP won that election by just one seat; ample evidence that the LNP were not really trusted to deliver on any of their promises. Furthermore, Labor had been in power for 11 years, a liability for any government.
Since then, the LNP have changed leaders and that’s pretty much it! Nothing else has changed. The ambulance service continues to struggle, the teachers are not the highest paid, the hospital waiting lists are the same, fire services have been cut and the list goes on. What is more insulting is that the promises they are dishing out now, are exactly the same as the ones they used to con sufficient numbers to change their vote in 2010. The hypocrisy is mind-boggling.
But it is the Desal plant that is the most interesting. To this day it has not delivered any water to the storages, because it hasn’t been needed. Average rainfall returned to normal after the 12 year drought in 2010 and our storage levels have remained above 65%, the tipping point at which the desal plant will kick in and start producing water to feed into our storage dams. The thing is, 2014 is the first year since 2009, when rainfall has been below average. And water levels are currently at 79%. One, therefore, can quite rightly ask: are we, in Victoria, at the beginning of another 12 year drought?
Taking long range weather reports into account, it is not just possible, but likely, that our storages will fall below 65% this summer whatever happens. So, will it be a Liberal or Labor premier who will issue the order to crank it up? Given the Liberals opposition to building the plant and the ridicule that they dealt out over its construction, how ironic would it be for them to be the ones to flip the switch.
Poetic justice, however, would see that Labor are given that privilege. After all, they had the foresight to build it. The election will be close with a possibility that the Greens could hold the balance of power in the lower house. Such a result would vindicate the view that we really don’t trust anyone, anymore. But, at least we have a desal plant.
