Tuesday, 31 March 2026

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:28): (1289) My question is to the Minister for Water. Minister, will the government be imposing water restrictions in metropolitan Melbourne this year?

 Gayle TIERNEY (Western Victoria – Minister for Skills and TAFE, Minister for Water) (12:28): I thank the member for her question, and indeed all people who are particularly interested in water. In terms of storage levels, as the member well knows, the advice that government receives in terms of restrictions comes from individual water corporations, and that has occurred since I have been minister in areas such as Apollo Bay and Lorne and Daylesford. All of those communities are not facing water restrictions at the moment, but they were in place for a period of time.

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:29): President, my question to the minister was around metropolitan Melbourne, not Apollo Bay or Daylesford, so I will ask to have that question reinstated. But my supplementary is: Minister, the government is running an advertising campaign telling Victorians to take shorter showers, effectively to restrict their water usage. Will you be placing an order for water from the desalination plant to avoid water restrictions this year?

 Gayle TIERNEY (Western Victoria – Minister for Skills and TAFE, Minister for Water) (12:30): In terms of the substantive question, if I can go to that, I was using the points of examples as an example of how it works, because clearly the member does not understand how the water system works at all in this state.

Georgie Crozier: On a point of order, President, the minister is debating the question. I asked: will the minister be placing an order for water from the desalination plant? I would ask you to bring her back to the supplementary question. Yes, I did give it some context, but in relation to this question, could you ask her to come back to answering this?

The PRESIDENT: The minister to continue.

Gayle TIERNEY: Again, this government is very much interested in ensuring that we have got accessible water and indeed that we get the right messages through to the community. There are water-saving rules in place, and they have been in place for a long, long time. In terms of that, we have also added a campaign into the community called count every drop, save every drop. It is about making sure that people understand what the responsibilities are in terms of shorter showers, not hosing down concrete, all of those sorts of things, including watering your garden between 6 and 10 at night. These are – (Time expired)

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:31): I move:

That the house takes the minister’s answer into consideration on the next day of meeting.

Motion agreed to.