Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of this motion and congratulate the member for Page for bringing such an important motion to the House. The theme for World Wetlands Day 2010 is ‘wetlands, biodiversity and climate change’. One could speak at great length on the importance of wetlands for the sustenance of life—life that is wholly dependent on the wetlands, life that largely relies on the wetlands and life that seasonally or occasionally uses such sites for intermittent purposes. The inter-reliance of myriad species of flora and fauna on wetlands and the natural processes that exist in them, each reliant on the others, is epic. Their beauty makes iconic images that exemplify the best of our largely arid landscape, images that we hold dear in our minds of Australia in its pristine condition. Be they current images of Kakadu, occasional images of Lake Eyre or 19th century images of the Murray River and its billabongs, such images are held dear by many, if not most, Australians with a sense of wonder and pride.

Most of eastern Australia’s waterways are regulated in one way or another and many surviving wetlands are reliant on regulated allocations of water for their survival. The Chowilla Floodplain, adjacent to the Murray River on the South Australia-Victoria border, is one such wetland. The Chowilla Floodplain is especially reliant on flooding, as saline groundwater will lay waste to the entire region without sufficient quantities of freshwater flooding over the ground and keeping the saline watertable down. If we allow the salt to rise, this land will not only lose its forest but become a lifeless hellhole. This is one of the great arguments in support of the Rudd government’s water buyback scheme—a government scheme for delivering more water to keep alive the rivers and their surrounding lands and all that rely on them. The other great argument in support of quarantining more water for non-commercial uses is soil acidification, a truly toxic and hellish outcome that threatens much more than the local area and populations.

To sustain our wetlands and flood-reliant forests and to keep the devastating chemical processes at bay, the government has purchased over 600 gigalitres of water entitlements to date. This is most welcome, and we have only spent one-third of funds budgeted for this purpose. The previous government’s target of 500 gigalitres of environmental water has already been well exceeded. The often cited target of 1,500 gigalitres, which just happens to be the highest of three arbitrary volumes inquired into by COAG around 2002, may also be exceeded by this one program. With other measures specifically concerned with metering on-farm irrigation systems and off-farm transmission infrastructure, the old 1,500-gigalitre target will most likely be well exceeded by this government, achieving in just a few years more than what the previous government ever dreamt of doing in over a decade in government.

The motion before us mentions the waste water treatment facilities of Lismore City Council and Richmond Valley Council, which the member for Page has mentioned. The use of treated waste water is gaining greater and wider attention and is resulting in the unlocking of substantial volumes of water for irrigation and environmental purposes. The great majority of waste water is generated in metropolitan areas, where the land for such ponds is at a premium and would more likely be used for stormwater harvesting. Nevertheless, in the case of Adelaide, an increasing proportion of waste water is being recycled through the McLaren Vale waste water irrigation system and the Bolivar waste water treatment plant’s piping of treated waste water to the northern market gardens and orchard districts around Virginia. These are excellent examples of what is possible in the vicinity of a large metropolitan area.

The member for Makin is here in the room with us. He had quite a bit to do in his former role as Mayor of the City of Salisbury in ensuring that wetlands were created in that area. The newest investment in that area, in my own electorate at Glenelg, is the Park Lands Recycled Water Pipeline Project, opened last month in Adelaide’s parklands, which I supported while a member of the opposition. I was very pleased to see that it was funded to the tune of over $30 million by the Rudd Labor government as soon as it came into office.

It is absolutely vital that each of us, in our own part of this country, treats water as a precious gift. We can be in metropolitan areas where stormwater harvesting and waste water recycling are priorities or in peri-metropolitan or more regional areas where land is available for pond treatment facilities such as in Lismore and Richmond council areas. Irrespective of that, we need to appreciate the value of the water we have—its value is increasing year by year. I commend this motion to the House.

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