UPDATE: In an afternoon press conference, TasWater Systems and Productivity manager Lance Stapleton said TasWater was working to renegotiate involvement, and had not declined to participate.
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“We still send monthly samples to the University of Queensland for this program and we participated heavily in last year’s Census,” he said.
Mr Stapleton said he was “a little disappointed” the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission handed down a report which said Tasmania had not participated.
“We never said that we would not participate, we always said we wanted to negotiate the scope,” he said.
Mr Stapleton said TasWater had negotiated an “in-principal position around the scope of the program”, and it would continue in August.
But he acknowledged expanding the scope would cost “many tens of thousands of dollars” – which will be borne by TasWater.
EARLIER: Tasmania will be the only state in Australia not to take part in the second stage of a national program providing insights into drug use, after TasWater elected not to participate.
The National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program analyses wastewater around the country and gives insights into drug use, insights that are vital for tackling drug use in the community.
TasWater participated in the first stage of the program, which found Tasmanians in regional areas were using ice more than those living in the state’s capital city.
The lack of participation prompted Federal Justice Minister Michael Keenan to write to the Tasmanian Government, outlining concerns.
“Non-participation by Tasmania is disappointing as it limits the understanding of trends and emerging issues in the jurisdictions and the ability to compare current findings with those published in the first report,” he wrote.
The revelation provided fodder for the state government’s relentless attack to justify the need for the takeover.
On Thursday morning Treasurer Peter Gutwein led the government’s attack.
“Local Government needs to explain why TasWater are not taking part in the National Wastewater Monitoring program,” he said.
“This is a very sensible idea that came out of the National Ice Taskforce.”
Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Management, Rene Hidding, slammed the decision.
“With the latest report released today, Tasmania will not be included for the simple reason that TasWater refused to participate in the research,” he said.
“It's simply not good enough that TasWater has refused to play its part in tackling drug use.”
Mr Hidding said the reluctance was another justification for the state government’s need to take control of TasWater.
“There is absolutely no doubt that under state government management, TasWater would participate in research projects such as this to gain a better understanding of drug use in the community,” he said.
“This is just one of the reasons why we need to takeover TasWater, so that the business can be managed in the best interests of the entire state.”
