What ever happened to freedom of choice?

The NSW government’s move to ban commercially bottled water from government departments and agencies is ridiculous. Is the bottled water business to be penalised simply for being successful?

Why does the Rees government want to significantly reduce the consumption of bottled water in the community? I thought times were tough and jobs were under threat, so why would a government try to close down a successful industry?

You would think the government would be happy that one industry is continuing to be successful in the current economic conditions. Australians spent about $500 million on bottled water in 2008, a 10% increase on 2007.

You would also think the government would be happy that consumers are choosing water. It is a particularly healthy beverage that does not contribute to the country’s growing obesity problems. If consumers are willing to pay for the convenience of getting their water chilled and in a bottle, why should the government interfere? If they were purchasing methamphetamines there would be an impact on society and government interference would be justified — but we are talking about water!

NSW Premier Nathan Rees said: "Bear this in mind. You take a 600 mL plastic bottle, 200mL of oil has gone into its production. That's leaving aside the CO₂ that comes from transporting it around the place."

This would have to apply to all 600 mL bottles, so why not ban every product that goes into bottles? In fact, why limit the restriction to beverages, why not all packaged goods? Why should the bottled water industry be the only sector penalised by having its trade restricted?

The water industry has spent considerable time and effort light-weighting the bottles it uses while many carbonated beverage bottles are heavier and contain oxygen-scavenging technologies as well. So surely these bottles would be having greater environmental impact than the water bottles?

I agree that water out of the tap is just as good as bottled water — but if people want to buy bottled water, and they obviously do, why not let them? If the government want to reduce the state’s environmental footprint there are many ways it can do this without banning bottled water sales.