Pipe challenge

By Kath Gannaway
THE BARRISTER for anti-Sugarloaf Pipeline farmers refusing to allow Melbourne Water staff on their properties has challenged Premier John Brumby and Water Minister Tim Holding to walk the talk.
Farmers Don Lawson, Bill Anderson and Deb McLeish were last week given the go-ahead by the Office of Public Prosecutions to continue their private prosecution against Melbourne Water staff for trespassing.
The Mail reported in January that Melbourne Water as part of the Sugarloaf Pipeline Alliance had requested the Director of Public Prosecutions to take over the cases but the DPP denied the request, opting instead to give the farmers, and Melbourne Water, their day in court.
Barrister Serge Petrovich said they had been confident of the outcome but expressed concern that the Melbourne Water workers involved continued to face prosecution if they entered the properties.
“I’m concerned because if they refuse to go onto these private farms they face the sack, but if they do, they face prosecution, it’s ridiculous,” he said.
Challenging the Premier and Mr Holding to lead Melbourne Water workers onto Ms McLeish’s farm he questioned their commitment to their position that Melbourne Water had a lawful right to enter the properties.
“If the Premier and Water Minister are so confident that what they’re asking these workers to do is lawful, then they should do it,” Mr Petrovich said.
“Lets see how confident they are when they are threatened with prosecution and it’s their jobs that are in jeopardy.”
A government spokesman responding to the challenge dismissed it as “ … nothing but a political stunt from failed Liberal Party candidate Serge Petrovich”.
Meanwhile Melbourne Water is not wavering from its view that the trespass charges simply don’t hold water.
Alliance spokesman Andrew McGinnes told the Mail Melbourne Water remained confident that the legal rights under the Water Act (1989) to enter private property to build the Sugarloaf Pipeline would be upheld, and that the trespass charges would be dismissed.
“This is similar to other utility authorities entering properties to install other vital infrastructure and services, like gas and telephone lines, across the state,” he said.
He said Melbourne Water would continue to work to resolve the matter, in the interests of the project and the workers who are at the centre of the trespass charges.