Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Sustainable Development and Cities) Share this | Hansard source

that my friend and colleague at the table well recognises—where a partnership between government and water users to improve the distribution and delivery systems was a good outcome for everybody. In some cases in the sandy channels up near the Sunraysia they were getting about four or five per cent efficiency from the water released from channels to the point of delivery where it was being used. The rest of it was just soaking into the sand or evaporating, and that was in nobody’s interest. The piping of much of that system and therefore the recovery of that water meant improved security for those relying upon it for productive purposes, better quality for those using it for stock and domestic applications and also the recovery of some water for other uses, including the environment. This was Victoria’s contribution to water reform—and, boy, we’ve gone backwards, haven’t we? We have seen, for no other reason than political posturing, the Victorian Labor government impede work on water reform that could have been nearly two years advanced. Here we are today talking about actions that could have started 21 months ago and been delivering benefits today.

The issue we need to face when investing in water reform is that we actually carry out the reform. We need to ensure that that investment, whether it be private or public, is delivering the outcomes we hoped for. We have seen a profound change, a change which I think few would contest, in the availability of water due to reduced rainfall patterns. We have seen example after example. The statistics are compelling. There are always arguments about why it is occurring and there is information about much of south-east Australia experiencing a stepped decrease in rainfall and reservoir inflows.

My own community around Melbourne had not a bad August, as I recall, but the rainfall did not translate into inflows. For the water engineers around us, the rainfall coefficient between what falls and what is recovered was nothing like it used to be because the environment was so parched it soaked up a lot of the encouraging rainfall and the inflows to the catchment were nothing like what we might have expected some years ago. There has been a step down in rainfall and reservoir inflows. In Melbourne alone, one-third of its average reservoir inflows have disappeared in the last decade. That presents us all with a challenge. We need to understand that water is not solely a rural issue; it is a very real issue for our metropolitan communities. In my new role as shadow minister for sustainable development and cities, that is something I will be focusing a lot of energy on.

I raise that because it highlights the need for a comprehensive approach to water reform. It means that doing more of the same is not the answer. It picks up some of the work being discussed at important high-level forums like the Australian Davos Connection and the like where really facing up to the full costs and pricing for water, including infrastructure, is something we must do, recognising that at the moment there are institutional impediments for people doing the right thing, where water institutions are encouraged to make more water available because that is directly linked to their revenue. Where do we put the price incentive and the revenue incentive to water authorities to achieve efficiency outcomes so that that becomes a rewarded goal for all of them, including the institutions involved in managing our scarce water resources? It also means making sure that the water market is well informed and that there are not any needless barriers to the operation of that market, but that the water entitlements out there are fundable, that they are real and verifiable. We see enormous fluctuations in the price of water in some irrigation districts at a time of scarcity when it is $1,000 a meg, compared to $60 a meg when we had 100 per cent allocation of water entitlements. That is an example from the Goulburn-Murray irrigation district.

What do we do about activating sleeper water entitlements, a claim to water which has rested, been dormant, held as an asset but not activated and then, when activated, adds greater burden, greater demands? We can look at smaller scale projects. I have long been reminded that enough rainfall lands on Adelaide to meet Adelaide’s entire metropolitan water requirements, that innovation and incentives around stormwater recovery are what is needed. The excellent work of Salisbury City Council is a good example of what is achievable. In my own community on the Mornington Peninsula, Frankston City was recently awarded the Keep Australia Beautiful Council’s Sustainable Cities Award. It was a great pleasure to be there just a week ago to make that presentation. The biggest threat to Port Phillip Bay is when it rains and all the hydrocarbons and E. coli wash off our suburban streets into Port Phillip. There is a pollution risk, but that water itself represents one of the most cost-effective ways of supplementing water availability.

With sewer mining, in Melbourne we have two mega sewage treatment facilities, one in Werribee and one just to the north of my electorate in Carrum in the Eastern Treatment Plant. As people talk about the impact of urban consolidation around cities, they say, ‘But the infrastructure can’t cope.’ It might not cope if we keep doing more of the same—that is, collect waste water and then pipe it tens of kilometres to a treatment facility. If people were able to intervene and recover water at that point and then make it available for non-potable use, that would be a good solution. It would expand and improve the efficiency of the existing infrastructure. All of these things are examples of what we can do. All of them go to the question of looking at reforms and impediments to optimising the efficient use of our water and scarce resources, and other price-sensitive resources such as energy and the like. This is the challenge ahead of all of us.

I was encouraged to hear Wilson Tuckey talk about instrumentation and the need for smart systems and the crucial role they can play, not only in properly recording the timing and volume of flows but also the price associated with them. We need to start thinking about just-in-time water delivery. It happens in every other sector, but we see an enormous loss of water as it is stored for some purpose down the track when really we could be thinking more creatively about making sure we have the volume of water required at the time it is needed and then have pricing reflect that. I have heard many people speak about the government’s intervention in the marketplace and the right of all water entitlement holders to know what is being bought and at what price, so that the market is informed about those interventions.

I have touched on incentives for other behaviours. Even with the initiatives we have spoken about in recent days I am frankly flabbergasted that the Rudd government, which flicks to environment and sustainability talk when that is the purpose of its message, could have overlooked opportunities with the economic security rescue package, particularly with the added first home buyer incentives, not to seek to pursue more sustainable features for housing, particularly for new homes. We know there is very cost-effective, commercially available technology. Why are we not saying that those sustainability features are important and should be rewarded in the added financial assistance? I do not know why that has not featured. It seems very short-sighted.

This is the case even with the National Rental Affordability Scheme, which was touched on earlier in the speech of my colleague and friend the shadow minister for housing, Scott Morrison. He talked about changes that could be made there. Again, why is the sustainability of rental accommodation not a key feature? I do not understand that. It is a missed opportunity. If housing affordability is our goal, the cost of running that housing should be as important, certainly to a tenant, as the cost of actually establishing it, yet you do not hear anything about that.

So my contribution to the debate on this bill is to encourage the government to recognise the systemic reform that needs to be pursued, with demand management efficiency, targeted infrastructure—not just more of the same—and smart systems, pricing signals and encouragement, reward and incentive for those doing all that we could ask of them. A whole-of-system approach needs to be part of this work, and a number of speakers today have already touched on opportunities that seem to have been overlooked. I can assure the House that I will make sure they are not overlooked in my new role as shadow minister for sustainable development and cities. I will seek to make sure that every step we take is a step towards a more sustainable economy, a more sustainable way of living and, hopefully, a nation and a people that treads a little bit more lightly on our earth as we go about our legitimate goal of improving our living standards, hoping and working for our families and making sure that we grow the economy and improve the environment simultaneously, which is what I really think the Australian public is expecting of all of us.

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