A little too late, but you’ve gotta give the guy some credit this time.

Did I just say that?

Oh my god!

Thanks Mr Howard. Please also encourage Beattie NOT to build those dams. Thanks. And keep listening to The Greens. Thanks.

Interview excerpt below. I’m sorry, I do not know the source of the interview but happy to attribute should someone let me know. However, an article link is as follows: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,19994133-5005961,00.html

JOURNALIST:

Mr Howard do you support the State Government�s idea of a referendum on water in 2008, or should they act now?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well I think the whole debate will have moved on and it should have moved on before 2008. This country has to face the need to change its attitude and its habits in relation to water. I think state governments have been too slow to build new dams and that is not only here in Queensland, but around Australia. I think we have to face the need to recycle water in big cities like Sydney and also to capture the run off when there are storms. We have to completely alter our approach to the use of water and I think younger people understand this and I think growing numbers of people understand it. If you run a referendum in a particular part of the country, it is always easy to whip up concern, but I would have thought by 2008, if governments around Australia are doing their job, the whole debate will have moved on. If we are still arguing in 2008 about the desirability of recycling, then we have a big problem.

JOURNALIST:

Do you support recycled sewerage for drinking water?

PRIME MINISTER:

I support recycling full stop.

JOURNALIST:

So, you would have supported the referendum?

PRIME MINISTER:

If I had been a resident, if I had been a resident of Toowoomba and it is a beautiful city, one of the most beautiful inland cities in Australia, I would have voted yes.

JOURNALIST:

You were also talking there about a referendum in one part of the country, yet it was your Government which insisted on that referendum being held in that place. Was that a mistake to insist on that referendum being held?

PRIME MINISTER:

No I think what it tells us though is that it is very easy to run a fear campaign, that�s what it tells us.

JOURNALIST:

But shouldn�t you have seen that when you ordered the referendum?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well I think we all learn by experience.

JOURNALIST:

So you�re not going to be doing it again?

PRIME MINISTER:

I think the whole country needs to have a big debate on water recycling and I intend to be a big part of it and I think it is long past the time when we should understand what a big problem water is in this country and that includes recycling, it includes dams, it includes a completely new approach, but most importantly of all, a
fundamental understanding of how hard the problem is.