Victorian gov $1b water fraud

The Victorian government has committed fraud to the tune of $1,000,000,000 against its taxpayers, and contributed to the so called 'drought' that Victoria faced, which was a government sponsored event.

Victorians have payed for a pipeline that has not been turned on by the government in an attempt to make a drought in order to justify the building of a desalination plant, at the expense of the public (once again).

No legal institution will take class action against its government that has plunged the Victorian economy into a spiral, as a result of inflated prices due to the 'shortage of water', whilst at the same time government were watering their lawn, when the populous were told to turn off their taps.

The hears sun article:

Precious water down the drain

mentions:


ENOUGH water to fill Melbourne's storages full is going into the ocean because the Baillieu Government won't switch on a $1 billion pipeline.

With Lake Eildon at 91 per cent - its highest level in 15 years - and billions of litres being released from it every day to prevent flooding, Water Minister Peter Walsh refuses to switch on the pipeline or say when he will.

The pipeline has been paid for by taxpayers and water users.

The State Opposition has branded the stance "pig-headed" and "ideologically stubborn".

After pledging to use the pipe only in extreme circumstances, the Baillieu Government must now choose either to break an election promise, or continue to allow billions of litres of water to go down the drain.

Close to 10 gigalitres - or 10 billion litres - of water a day has been released from the reservoir in recent weeks. That's enough to supply Melbourne's water for a year.

Melbourne uses about 988 million litres a day.

The water at Lake Eildon, in the state's northeast, is being released into the Goulburn River, which feeds into the Murray River near Echuca and empties into the ocean off South Australia.

Opposition water spokesman John Lenders accused the Government of wasting the water in fear of upsetting regional Victorians by piping it to Melbourne.

"In a week, they're spilling all the water Melbourne uses and it's all because the Government has a policy and it's too stubborn to put it down the pipe," he said.

"When the next drought comes, and it will come, Melbourne will need more water.

"The plug has been pulled out and the water is running all the way to the ocean in South Australia when it could basically, at no cost, be stored in Melbourne's dams."

About 700 million litres was released from Lake Eildon on Friday. Another 500 million litres was released yesterday.

Mr Walsh said the water was being released into rivers to mitigate the risk of flooding downstream. He said it would be too difficult and expensive to divert flows to Melbourne.

"With Sugarloaf full, and Maroondah Reservoir overflowing upstream of it, it is impossible to use the north-south pipeline to bring water to Melbourne," he said.

But Mr Lenders said storages could easily be moved to make way for more water.

"They're just keeping Melbourne's northern dams full so they've got an excuse not to use the pipeline," he said.

Melbourne Water supply manager John Woodland said the state was experiencing good flows into its major dams. It made sense to make the most of them before pumping reserves from Lake Eildon.

Melbourne Water customers paid $350 million for the right to pump 75 billion litres across the Great Dividing Range from Lake Eildon.