Today I want to talk about drought and water. South-east Queensland is in the grip of the second worst drought on record. If our dams do not receive significant volumes of water in the next six months the region will sink into the worst drought ever. Cabinet yesterday discussed the latest projections on drought and dams. Modelling by South East Queensland Water shows that under the worst case scenario Wivenhoe, Somerset and North Pine dams will strike what is known as `dead' storage levels--that is, five per cent--in December 2006. That would apply without water restrictions; restrictions would push the `dead' levels date to February 2007. Under the more realistic scenario of a repeat of 2004 rainfall patterns, dead levels will hit in October 2007 without water restrictions, or in September 2008 if there are restrictions.

Water management is a feature of the South-East Queensland Regional Plan and program, including upgrading and building new water infrastructure. The data presented to cabinet by the Minister for Natural Resources and Mines, Henry Palaszczuk, shows we must take the lead on water reform in Australia's fastest growing region. With more than 1,000 new residents flocking to the region every week, and climate change a scientific fact, we have no time to waste. As an immediate step, we will accelerate infrastructure developments on the Logan, Albert and Mary Rivers under the South-East Queensland Infrastructure Plan. Regarding Wivenhoe Dam, South-East Queensland Water is well advanced with the upgrade of the spillway which is essential to urban water supplies in south-east Queensland.

I advise the House today that the government has given south-east Queensland a commitment to subsidise the cost of the upgrade and we are honouring this commitment with a payment to assist with the upgrade. We will also bring forward $10 million in subsidies to local governments for water conservation measures, such as pressure reduction and reducing water distribution losses. The government is also examining the feasibility of desalination and exploring water purification and reuse proposals. We will reinforce capital works and maintenance initiatives with more robust laws, cracking down harder on people who repeatedly breach restrictions. We will also fast-track a proposed review of institutional arrangements. This will ensure that the arrangements for ownership and control of dams and water supplies serve the best interests of south-east Queenslanders. The region has 19 dams owned by 10 different organisations.

The south-east Queensland arrangements contrast with those in other states, where government owned corporations, not local councils, manage dams, water treatment, bulk and retail water delivery and waste water services for the entire state or for large metropolitan areas. The south-east Queensland arrangement can lead to baffling anomalies. For instance, in recent years Gold Coast swimmers had to leave the beach without taking a shower, but there was nothing to stop Brisbane people hosing down their driveways. The Gold Coast draws water from Wivenhoe Dam, which is at 38 per cent capacity, while Hinze Dam is more than 80 per cent full. We will work with local governments, other water service providers and the community to make such anomalies a thing of the past.

We will speed up the review of institutional arrangements to ensure everyone has equitable access to water. The stronger laws that we propose will impose tougher penalties on people who flout water restrictions. A domestic water user who breaches water restrictions currently faces an on-the-spot fine of $75 each time they offend. We propose to significantly increase fines, particularly for repeat offenders, and to have much bigger penalties for corporate and industrial offenders. We also propose on-the-spot fines for anyone who takes water from fire fighting systems and hydrants without approval.

Further, we propose to give the state reserve powers to impose restrictions if local governments refuse to do so . I hope the government will never need to apply any of these emergency powers. However, we need to hold them in reserve to ensure that the population and economy of south-east Queensland can continue to flourish with confidence.

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