Jackie Kelly (Lindsay, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Grayndler has obviously and clearly shown his complete lack of understanding of the Hawkesbury-Nepean catchment. Coming from the inner city suburb of Marrickville, it is no wonder. How he could have sat in parliament for 10 years and missed the fact that our government is investing $12.9 million into the Hawkesbury-Nepean investment blueprint, compared to the New South Wales government’s paltry $1.2 million, is disgraceful and it is no wonder he is leaving very quickly. He is exiting the chamber before he learns a little more about what this government has done for the health of the Nepean catchment management system. This is appalling neglect by this absolutely lazy and quick-fix state government led now by Morris Iemma but previously by Bob Carr.

The state government’s response to this major problem has been a sort of a short-term quick-fix approach that we have seen with pretty much everything else. They have basically cut the environmental flows to 50 per cent so absolutely nothing goes over Penrith. We had a fantastic resource right there in Penrith, which was used for the bridge-to-bridge swim, which is now moving to the Sydney International Regatta Centre next year because most of the swimming clubs refuse to use it anymore because their swimmers get caught in the weed. We have had the Nepean triathlon for 26 years, mainly on the river. Again, it has been moved to the regatta centre. We have even seen all of the rowing events go out to the Olympic centre. The head coach of the Nepean club is reported in the Penrith Star as saying that it could affect the chances of the club getting a medal in the future. They are getting broken equipment and they are getting strained muscles from athletes getting caught in the weed and really upsetting themselves. In fact, one of their learners fell in and had to be rescued from one of the coaching dinghies.

The river is in a real mess. A lot of those tourism dollars that are generated from its recreational uses have gone, and the state government is basically offering to pump deeper in the Warragamba, have a desalination plant—presumably run by about three coal powered electricity stations—or pump from the Shoalhaven. Why they do not just dam the Shoalhaven, I do not know. It is just unbelievable. At the moment they are actually drilling in Leonay. They are now drilling for aquifers in my suburbs. They have no idea how long these aquifers take to refill but say, ‘Let’s go drilling willy-nilly for these aquifers now, and that will solve the water crisis.’

As a government that shows very scant regard for people who are pro-life or have religious leanings, their sole plan for water for Sydney is to pray for rain. I do not know that they are going to have much success in that. One of the quick-fix options they offered my electorate was that they were going to spend about $100,000 over five weeks on a weed harvester. That is $20,000 a week that they were going to spend on a weed harvester. If they had bought a second-hand harvester, which is available for about $250,000, they would have been able to operate their own harvester for 12 weeks to pay it off. You would have a permanent harvester and, over a year, you could keep the harvesting going and make a real start on fixing the problem.

Our state government are not renowned for their budgetary expertise, and they seem to get in a hole wherever they go. They certainly have not closed many STPs since I was elected in 1996. There were 36 STPs draining to the Hawkesbury-Nepean catchment system before it exited at Broken Bay. Today there are about 30. In fact, the residents of Hawkesbury have been drinking and using effluent. Eighty per cent of what is pumped into the Hawkesbury River is effluent, and they have been recycling that water to a drinkable state for the city of Hawkesbury.

There is a lot more that the state government could do, rather than letting an enormous amount of rainwater flow out to sea and putting more chemicals and stormwater run-off into the river. They can certainly improve what goes back into the river. It is already caught. We in the federal government did some magnificent reports on sustainable cities, and those outcomes need to be put in place by state governments.

They have really made a big impact on a lot of the financial aspects of the river, as mentioned by the member for Macquarie. We have seen a lot of tourism events close down; we had a lot of houseboats; we have seen a lot of propellers being choked by weed; we have seen a lot of events move off the river system. Those events do not come back. It will be an enormous investment by the state government in tourism to get that type of funding back into the areas along the Hawkesbury. (Time expired)

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