A SENATE inquiry will hear damning evidence this week that casts further doubt on water savings from the $2 billion Food Bowl Modernisation Project, a key part of the Brumby Government's water plan.
A Government insider has provided the Plug the Pipe campaign with documents that appear to show that data in a pilot project was changed to inflate water savings.
The irrigation technology tested in the pilot, called Total Channel Control, is now at the heart of the Government's food bowl project.
Ken Pattison, a Plug the Pipe member and former director of Goulburn-Murray Water, will present the documents, also obtained by The Sunday Age, to the Senate inquiry into the Water Amendment Bill 2008 when it sits in Shepparton on Tuesday.
Mr Pattison told The Sunday Age that the evidence would show the pilot project set a pattern of overestimating water savings from irrigation upgrades. "We believe we are going to put a crack in the wall," he said.
Mr Pattison will present the evidence on behalf of the Government insider, who has decided not to appear. One of the documents, by the pilot project's consultants, URS, says the project working group — which included the Department of Sustainability, Goulburn-Murray Water and Rubicon Systems Australia, the makers of Total Channel Control — met in Melbourne in April 2004 and "assumptions" about losses and flows were agreed to.
But in an economic evaluation of the pilot, it appears the average yearly flows into the area have been bumped up by more than 4000 million litres to 17,400 million litres.
Other project documents show the historic average annual flow to be about 13,100 million litres. The effect of this change was to make the percentage of water saved look better than it was, the Government insider believes.
Another document, prepared by project manager Clive Luscombe, describes how it was expected that the technology would boost the efficiency of the channels to 93 per cent, but in fact the pilot achieved only 79 per cent.
"Clearly this result was not to be expected based on the pre-pilot information," the report says.
Mr Luscombe puts the problem down to "pre-pilot conditions" and the difficulty in manually measuring the outfall, or excess water, coming from irrigation districts.
A spokesman for the State Government said it would not comment on evidence it was yet to hear.
The Government has claimed the food bowl project will deliver up to 75 billion litres of water to Melbourne each year after 2010.
Rubicon Systems Australia's contract to supply its irrigation modernisation equipment to the project is believed to be worth several hundred million dollars.
Plug the Pipe and the Government insider believe the alteration of the data in the pilot project led to an overestimation of water savings that has never been properly audited.
The Government has been under pressure to prove the project will deliver the water savings to make the $750 million north-south pipeline worthwhile.
Last year the Auditor-General criticised the Government for the "inadequate rigour applied to estimate costs, benefits and risks of some of the key component projects" of its water plan and called on it to "publish the detailed analysis underpinning the estimates of water savings and costs for the Food Bowl Modernisation Project".
The Government has refused to release its business case under freedom-of-information laws.
If you want to know more or see more pics I can do a subsequent post with maps.
A SHOCKING video of a commuter being allegedly bashed by a train driver at Flinders St Station is being investigated by police.The footage was taken on a mobile phone by 13-year-old Mitchell Smith as horrified passengers looked on. The man allegedly attempted to board a Craigieburn train about 3.30pm on Tuesday before getting into an argument with the driver.
The driver then allegedly left his cabin and followed the passenger to the platform where he repeatedly punched the man violently on the ground.
"He was just continuously hitting him,'' he said. His mother, Maree, was also horrified. "I couldn't believe the arm action of the man continuously just belting him,'' she said.
Connex has stood down the driver while the incident is investigated and has handed over CCTV footage to Victoria Police. Connex managing director Alan Chaplin said the serious nature of the matter led to the decision to immediately suspend the driver from duty.
"There will be a full investigation by us and the police,'' he said.
"We will await the results of our investigation before deciding what further action should be taken, but I can assure our customers incidents like this are extremely rare.'' Mr Chaplin said Connex would also consider other measures it could introduce to reduce the chance of any such incident happening again.
A spokesman for Acting Public Transport Minister Tim Pallas did not comment on the incident only confirming that a thorough investigation was underway.
The judge watched the film... How many times?A US judge says a commercial helicopter pilot videotaped in a sex act while
flying over San Diego committed gross negligence and cannot have his licence back.National Transportation Safety Board administrative law Judge William R. Mullins upheld a Federal Aviation Administration order revoking the licence of David Martz after a hearing on Tuesday.
Martz had no comment after the ruling.
A passenger was videotaping when Martz let an adult film actress perform a sex act on him during the 2005 flight, and an edited version eventually became public.
The judge watched the unedited tape in chambers and took testimony before his decision.
Martz testified that his actions were unwise and he's much more responsible now.
AP
Amazing what lengths people will go to in the attempt for a better life.An Afghan youth survived a 30-hour journey from Athens strapped underneath a bus, only to discover that he had arrived in Poland and not his chosen destination Italy, border guards said on Monday.
"The man, aged 19 years old, was hidden near the gearbox, attached with a belt," Elzbieta Pikor, spokesman for the Polish border guard, told AFP. Polish transport mechanics had discovered him as they were checking the bus.
"Italia?" the young man asked as he emerged from his hiding place after the 2,800km journey.
In fact, he had arrived in Nowa Deba, southern Poland, having picked the wrong bus, another from the same line having left Athens for Italy.
"He was exhausted, frozen and starving, but in good health," said Pikor.
The would-be immigrant had travelled through Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary and Slovakia along the way, the gear cable scratching his face every time the bus changed gears.
He was carrying no papers and gave his name only as Yahiya, saying he was from the Afghan capital Kabul.
He will be kept in a Polish detention centre pending a decision on his request for refugee status.
