here we go... this was always on...

Okay, so the source is the Herald-Sun. Worse yet, the Sunday Herald-Sun. So I'll wait until I hear it from a reliable source like, I don't know, the three year old neice. But this one rings a bit true, don't you think.

THE Bracks Government is outraged at a leaked federal proposal to tax rainwater collected from roofs. The idea was revealed in a leaked email seen by the Sunday Herald Sun.

In the email, National Water Commission chief Ken Matthews says, "Legally, all water in Australia is vested in governments."

Mr Matthews' email continued: "Governments have not yet considered the capture of water from roofs in rainwater tanks to be of sufficient magnitude to warrant the issuing of specific entitlements to use this class of water.

Can't wait to see who's brave enough to trying taxing rain water!

end of bolta?

For the unitiated (you lucky buggers), Andrew Bolt is a regular opinion write in the News Ltd stable. He writes directly for the Herald-Sun in Melbourne, but I believe he is cross-posted to some of their regional papers and appears on TV and the like.

Right Wing Dead Beat.

Anyway, its beginning to look like we might've seen the last of him. As a columnist, at least. The last post in his blog is telling. That and the fact that everyone else seems to have come back from holidays, but still no sign of Andy.

Understandable, too. His positions of denial on global warming have become ridiculously stark over the last year. Recently more and more of the media and political class have come to accept the blindingly obvious. Toward the end of last year even John Howard and Rupert Murdoch have jumped on the bandwagon! Bolt truly is alone on this issue. His publication will, in coming months, take on a much greater environmental message than it ever has before. As a result, Bolt's position must be considered untenable.

Of Bolt's other two high end flogging horses, Islam and Water, he is on safe ground with one. The News Ltd stable is showing no signs of reducing it's vilification of our Muslim community.

But on Water, the ground has shifted under him, too. The Herald Sun is beginning to take something of a "campaign" approach to water saving. Bolt's simplistic and generally derided solution is to simply build another dam! Of course, this is thoroughly pointless. The fact remains that, at least for the forseeable future, rainfall patterns have changed. We must capture more water in the cities of Australia. And use less. A new dam will not help when it isn't raining!

I may be wrong, but I believe the capacity of our current dams when full are adequate for a few decades yet. If they were full! I'll stand corrected, if anyone wants to refute that.

So, where to for Bolta? He's a loyal company man. The editorship of the Hearld-Sun is up for grabs, with Peter Blunden being kicked upstairs. Perhaps it would be easier to hide from the humiliation of abandoning his long held views from the privacy of a different office!

We shall wait and see.

simple and effective...

Why isn't this thing mandatory in new homes? Or subject to a rebate of some kind?

Image shameslessly stolen from The Age

It's perfect in its simplicity. And absolutely correct in its core assumption that we lazy humans won't make any effort to save water that involves more than a seconds work.

The way this thing works is it allows you to flick off the water in the shower, while you're lathering up or whatever, then turn it back on at the same temperature setting. Rather than all that hassle of resetting the water when you turn it back on, you see.

Ingenious!