Western Australia's turf industry has vented anger over the head of the Water Corporation pushing for a shift from grassed verges in Perth, saying it was "like Hillary Clinton addressing the masses".
Water Corp chief executive Sue Murphy spoke at an Urban Institute of Australia lunch last week about the need to move away from rolling English-style landscapes.
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Perth Turf Wars
The water corporation urging people to rip up their grass verges. Vision: Nine News Perth
"We use a lot of water to water a space that doesn't need to be watered," The West Australian quoted on Monday.
"We need trees, we need to remove the urban heat island, we need porous surfaces so that the water can get into the groundwater when it does rain, and we need the ability for people like the Water Corporation to be able to run pipes, fix leaks and bursts and actually dig up those verges.
"But we don't have to have grass for that to be the case."
Turf Australia spokesman Adrian Pitsikas said Ms Murphy's comments were "disappointing" and "smacked of Hillary Clinton preaching to the working poor".
"At her place I bet there's a nice big green lawn," he speculated.
"Maybe she should advise everyone to fill in their swimming pools. I mean what's next? There needs to be a holistic approach."
![Is there a better way? The debate continues in Perth.](/web/20170221024638im_/http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/i/a/b/2/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gqia7n.png/1476311022695.jpg)
Mr Pitsikas said the new waterwise verge policy, announced in June, played with the livelihoods of not only WA's 50-odd turf growers but the green industry creating and maintaining public spaces, worth $1 billion and employing 100 000 people.
"These are micro businesses," he said.
![More residents are beginning to experiment with their verges, where council policy allows it.](/web/20170221024638im_/http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/i/a/b/3/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gqia7n.png/1470101785374.jpg)
"It's your local lawn mowing person, who essentially provides a social contract for many elderly people. Some of these people, their man from Jim's Mowing is the only person who they see all week. That was the feedback from the local lawn mowing association."
The new sustainable verge incentive scheme and Best Practice Guidelines endorsed waterwise councils, which have policies consistent with the guidelines, to apply for grants of up to $10,000 a year for incentive schemes to encourage residents to rip up and redo their verges.
![A waterwise native verge in Perth.](/web/20170221024638im_/http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/i/a/b/4/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gqia7n.png/1476311022942.jpg)
The minister said the guidelines were developed in consultation with local government and the landscape industry, incorporating 'learnings' from previous verge policies and best practice landscape design principles.
But Mr Pitsikas said the consultations had been a box-ticking exercise and had virtually been ignored.
![Is it best to use these valuable pockets of public open space for grass, food plants, natives or just trees, trees, ...](/web/20170221024638im_/http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/i/a/b/b/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gqia7n.png/1470101785374.jpg)
"They set up these working groups because they have to engage in consultation with industry groups but they don't listen," he said.
"Industry has provided some solutions that demonstrate that greenscaping can be done in sync with a changing climate but they choose their own path.
"They come out with these ideals but ... families need a place for kids to play cricket.
"Blocks are getting smaller hence water use is lower anyway, and there's no overflow parking anywhere for people to park except verges.
"A turfed verge is a safe, low fire-risk surface that like any active growing green plant will pull carbon dioxide from the environment.
"There are also safety issues in people reversing out of driveways and having reduced visibility."
He said the industry had worked to develop technology and breed more waterwise grasses but at the end of the day all plants needed some watering.
"They talk about the urban heat island effect, but a non-irrigated native verge will create its own microclimate that can be close in temperature to hardscaping," he said.
He said industry had for years advocated a "third pipe" system, such as that used in Victoria and New South Wales, in which subdivisions were equipped with not only potable water and sewerage pipes but also recycled water for gardens.
It had also advocated soil amendments, and for the daily evaporation rate to be advertised in weather forcecasts so people could learn exactly how much to water their lawn on a given day.
There had also been huge breakthroughs in irrigation technology.
"When Kim Hames was minister for housing and water we wanted to make it mandatory for people to have a dual-programmed irrigation controller that would enforce hydro-zoning," he said.
"They just always say it's too complicated for the average punter to interpret.
"There are country towns that use recycled water.
"It's just a bitter pill the Water Corporation doesn't want to swallow."
When announcing the new policy, water minister Mia Davies said a well-designed waterwise verge could make streets look good, cool houses, provide wildlife habitat and promote biodiversity.
"The new guidelines and incentive scheme will balance this with the wise use of water. This is an important step in ensuring our communities continue to adapt to the drying climate," she said in a statement.
Perth verge policies hit the spotlight earlier this year when a Wembley resident's waterwise verge was forcibly ripped up by her council, which said it had no choice because it contravened policy.
WAtoday investigations showed a huge variation in councils' policies, and debate online raged over whether natives, grass, food plants or trees should win the battle over these increasingly valuable parcels of public open space.
And with various industries set to gain or lose, not to mention residents' deeply held beliefs about our suburbs should look like, it seems the war is far from over.