Stage Two Restrictions Forever?

Ah, yes, there is nothing like a knock-on effect covering a decent stretch goal while the social mobility is hiding behind the full potential in the broom cupboard 😉

I was making a general point. Stage 3 restrictions are more inequitable than stage 2, but they’re still inequitable. Most households probably will find that stage 2 doesn’t impact their activities that much, but as the restrictions get harsher they tend to bite more.

Economically minded readers will know what I’m talking about when I say water retrictions are inequitable. I can’t say it that simply without getting into economic babble about utility functions, non-optimal consumption and Pareto-inefficient outcomes.

Ralph: You can water your lawn with a hose! And wash your car with a bucket. And at Stage 2 you can even use a sprinkler, but in the morning or at evening.

Yeah…and let them bare-handedly carve the rocks to build Tennent dam, while Vicky D. is lurking in the background with a whip.

Water restrictions are inequitable. You can stand with a hose and put water on a garden for 15 mins, but you can’t put water on a lawn or wash a car. Even if you save water in the house, you can’t use what you’ve saved for car washing or lawn watering.

Price it properly and let people use it how they see fit.

I admire your point 🙂

Since water is metered anyway, let’s get into allocating amounts per person – that’ll sort the wasters out quickly enough when they have to go to Mt Franklin for more.

Okok…my point was a tad strong, but in general: If you are saving a lot of water anyway, what is the outrage over the restrictions? Just on philosophical grounds?
All restrictions do is force some people that are not like you (Maelinar) to think twice about the water used in their garden and on their car. We actually have a pretty feral water consuming garden (not our choice as tenants), but easily made it through last summer. The only hassle was that we actually had to hold a hose for 30 minutes around sunset every 2nd day and put some greywater out. Of course it is easier to turn the sprinkler on and you have half an hour more time to watch TV, but because of their ease of use, sprinklers tend to stay on for hours.
Now if this is too much of an inconvenience I can’t help people either. By the way: I am not member of the Stanhope fan club, neither do I think the current form of restrictions is the best solution (especially in respect to public places, ovals…), but I do prefer some for of water restrictions (or maybe just guidelines) to a free-for-all or a libertarian approach. The latter (although a good idea) would just lead to a situation where the rich bitches could blow a massive amount of water, while the..er…”Stanhope battlers” will really have a dry time.

I agree, there is one guy on the way home who has a sea of green lawn amoungst the expanse of wilted lawns.

Primarily I can’t understand his logic of making your property look good when nobody else is, but each to their own.

Makes a good landmark to stop for a little wee on the way home from Magpies though. Apparently his lawn likes beer infused urine too.

Mel, I think Es is talking generally; you only have to drive to our more affluent suburbs such as Isaacs, O’Malley, Forrest, Red Hill, Gleneagles, Jerrabomberra etc to see where water restrictions and English Lawns avoid contact on a near daily basis.

I would put it too you that most of our resources are wasted by a privelaged few. Still not solving any problems though, it’s merely an observation.

Learn from? Sure, the lesson is, don’t prosper.

I hear alot about water tanks, how expensive they are and the lack of Gov assistence. Are there other alternatives to tanks for individual residences? Surely there are poorer, drier populations on the planet that we can learn from.

do I have an english lawn – NO!
have I washed my car – NO!
do I tend my garden – NO!
am I still using 40% of total potable water as indicated by the government statistics – YES!

Es, you don’t know what your talking about.

What about just thinking about saving some water instead of whinging.
Are you Aussies? Yes! Do you love your sunburnt country? Yes! Does a sunburnt country need an English lawn? NO! Do you need to water consuming cultivate noxious weeds, while farmers downstream can’t feed their cattle? Well, it’s up to you whether you want to live with the land you have or whinge and garden like poms.

Chris, Ralph: One of the conditions of the Federal Government’s resuming the land from then NSW farmers for the ACT back in the early 1900s was that it would always remain in possesion of the federal government. That’s why we don’t ahve freeholds in the ACT (at least, if I’ve understood it all correctly that’s why).
K

snap!

Stand with me at the next election Thumper! Together we will fight for the opressed, the poor, the neddy and the dirty car owners!

No probs seeing MLA’s w/o jobs, then they can justify living in Govvy housing.

Couldn’t agree more.

I’d be more than happy to see the non NCA areas absorbed back into NSW.

Bulldog, why not simply reactivate the old ‘No Self Government Party’ and lobby the feds to take back Canberra (OK, the Dept. of the National Capital can look after the Parlt. triangle) and the rest can either go back to where we were pre-self government or be absorbed into NSW! Either way it couldn’t be more expensive than our present morass. BUT – a lot of ACT MLAs would be out of jobs….

Cheers RG, I’ll bear that in mind.

I once worked with a colleugue who was French and he was agast at how laid back we were in Australia. He had told me on numerous occasions that if the shit they pull off here was done in Europe people would be out on the streets in protest, industry would shut down and the Gov’t involved would have to ammend it’s decisions.

Don’t know if he was correct, but it bears consideration. Mind you I don’t think that plan would work here becasue we are all such dependant consumers…

Any other ideas that don’t involve sending me to the poor-house?

Although the press involved sounds appealing: Vote 1: Bulldog to bite the bad guys!

bulldog, run for the assembly and raise it.

Mind your backpocket while you are at it.

Piss poor water management and inaction from the current and past Governments is to blame for our situation. And we are to blame for letting it happen.

Why can’t someone in the assembly stand up and indentify all the problems we raise on this site? Why are we letting the Gov’t continue with their self serving policies dictated by their own back pockets?

Any ideas? Anyone? Seriously, something needs to be done.

When I read things like “…rather than setting a sustainable price and letting us make up our own silly minds” it makes me think that if that ever did happen, the “speed cameras are revenue raisers!” screechers would take up a new mantra: “upping water prices is revenue raising!”

Somebody mentioned somewhere recently about why the government keeping us in a state of ‘frenzy’, this is a good example of us being too worried about other things and allowing the wool to be pulled over our eyes on the home front.

Sorry about being off topic, but is anybody doing anything about the government’s oligarchy at the moment ?

Despot Stanhope sounds better than Comrade at the moment

Next thing you know, we’ll all be asked to dig longdrops in our backyards to conserve water!

Will the general populous ever wake up and realise that water rationing (restrictions) is akin to communist regimes?

People even get into a communist mindset and are happy to be dictated to by the state about their water use, and comply, ‘because it is for the greater good’.