Leader 50th: It was full steam ahead for desal

The state government pressed ahead with building a $1.9 billion desalination plant at Kurnell in 2007. Less than a year after putting the project on hold, Premier Morris Iemma announced that if Labor was returned at the March election, he would sign the contract... However, the head of a government-appointed team which assessed Sydney's water needs in 2006 said the plant was likely to be needed very infrequently. "It would never have been needed in all the droughts in the last century," said Professor Stuart White, director of the Institute for Sustainable Futures at UTS. [read full story]