Welcome to the December 08 Edition of Abode.

Regardless of the propaganda being generated by the 640 ‘spin doctors’ employed by the Bligh Labor Government, there is considerable disquiet in the electorate over Premier Anna Bligh’s determination to add recycled water to the south-east Queensland water supply as early as February next year.

Talk-back radio polls indicate more than 86% of the callers are opposed to the plan which was originally proposed by former Premier Beattie as an ‘Armageddon’ solution. South-east Queensland dams are now at well over 45% capacity and despite the rhetoric, there is no urgency to add recycled water to the majority of the state’s drinking water. This is now double the supply capacity, in our dams, compared to the same time last year and with better than average summer rains forecast for the 2008-2009 storm season, the likelihood of dam levels increasing to as much as 50-60% is more than reasonable.

Few people have any concerns with the proposal to use recycled water for industrial and agricultural use however, there are many unanswered questions as to the safety of recycled water. The government has been unable to provide information on treatment of hospital and other toxic waste residue that is likely to flow into our dams if recycled water is added to the supply chain.

What has surprised the electorate is the arrogance of the Premier on this issue. The concerns of the electorate are not unfounded. Nowhere else in the world has this proposed system been tried and proven. In short, we are being used as guinea pigs.

The major concern is that if the supposed ‘safe’ recycled water turns out not to be ‘safe’, the result could be catastrophic. The prospect of hundreds of thousands of sick people forced to seek treatment in an already inefficient and under resourced public health system is horrifying.

If the addition of recycled water to the water supply proves unsafe, Beattie’s ‘Armageddon’ situation might be realised for all the wrong reasons.

On a brighter note, interest rates are coming down and confidence is slowly returning to the market sector. Here is hoping the remainder of 2008 will be more buoyant than the last quarter.

Features this month include:

- LATEST PROPERTY NEWS
- PARADISE PERSONIFIED
- THE JAG IS BACK
- BEAUTY IN BLOOM

Queensland's, Best Luxury Abodes:

- ASPECTS OF THE AVENUE
- WATER'S EDGE
- VIRTUALLY IRREPLACEABLE

Until next month,
Peter Scott
Publisher