Victorian premier, socialist left faction leader Daniel Andrews, seems determined to turn that state into Australia’s very own little Venezuela. Whether it’s promulgating the creepy Marxist nonsense of “Safe Schools” (the template for New Zealand’s “Mates and Dates”), greedily trousering billions from the Chinese communist regime, or fiddling in denial while African gangs run rampant in Melbourne suburbs, if there’s a useless watermelon cause going, all Red Dan wants to know is, “Where do we sign?”
Between its rampaging gangs and tottering infrastructure, Victoria is just a blackout away from turning into a Mad Max dystopia. Fittingly enough, the original classic Mad Max was filmed all around my home town, in Victoria.
The Victorian government has ruled out new dams, saying climate change means not enough water would flow into them to make them worthwhile.
“Even the rain that falls isn’t actually going to fill our dams and our river systems” – former Climate Commissioner Tim Flannery in 2004.
“South East Queensland Water revealed the [Wivenhoe] dam was holding what was classed as ‘190 per cent’” – The Australian, 2011.
“Warragamba Dam full, set to overflow” – News.com.au, 2016.
Water Minister Lisa Neville says water in the state’s rivers will halve by 2065, citing this forecast in her refusal to build even one dam, even though over that period the state’s population is expected to double.
Poor old Tim based his claim about dams, and similar claims that Perth would be “the 21st century’s first ghost metropolis”, on the same forecasts.
Lisa Neville, it should also be known, has also been Victoria’s Police Minister during the worst of its African gang crisis – a crisis the government has steadfastly denied even exists. She’s consistent in applying her competence and experience, I’ll give her that.
Rather, she said, Victoria would rely on its high electricity-consuming desalination plant, from which it has ordered $81m of water this year, costing average households what she said was “only” $10 […]
The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ central estimate for Victoria’s population in 2066 is 12 million.
In 2006, the then Labor state government rejected a dam for the Maribyrnong River, proposed by the Liberal Party and estimated to cost $80m. Ms Neville’s spokeswoman said it would have yielded about 25 gigalitres, whereas the desalination plant could provide up to 150GL independent of rainfall.
The Australian has calculated that, on this basis, the cost of the Maribyrnong Dam would have been $3.2m/GL of water yielded, whereas the cost of the desalination plant is $23m/GL.
theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/no-point-building-new-dams-says-minister
Victoria’s desalination plant was rushed into construction during the last drought, costing $3.5 billion. By the time it was actually built, Victoria’s dams were back at over 80% capacity. Even sitting idle, the plant still costs Victorians nearly $2 million a day. Even when finally pressed into service in 2017, the plant failed to deliver its promised quota.
Still, the Water Minister places a standing order for water (whether it’s needed or not) on every April 1.
“Tell me this isn’t a government operation” – Gene Kranz (Ed Harris), Apollo 13.