Kirsten Livermore (Capricornia, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Sugar cane growers in the Mackay-Whitsunday region and their partners—the local natural resource management organisation Reef Catchments, Coca-Cola and WWF—have been recognised for their efforts to improve water quality in the region’s Great Barrier Reef catchments. The partners in Project Catalyst were recently announced as national winners of the agriculture and food category in this year’s Banksia Awards. The Banksia Awards are now in their 21st year of recognising and rewarding environmental excellence, and I congratulate the team behind Project Catalyst for their success in such a prestigious national competition.

Project Catalyst has always been a great initiative but the results from its first year have taken everyone by surprise and have elevated it to a model of farming practice that is of national and even international significance. In its first phase, efforts to reduce the pesticide, herbicide and sediment load leaving sugar cane farms have transformed the quality of 24,000 megalitres of run-off and drainage water entering the reef catchments around the Mackay and Whitsunday region. The Banksia judges commented that the project, involving 19 cane growers, had a major impact on a very sensitive ecosystem with potential to translate to other areas of the world experiencing similar challenges. Congratulations to everyone who has worked so hard to get Project Catalyst to this point and especially to Rob Cocco, Royce Bishop, Will Higham and the team at Reef Catchments, and of course to the growers who have invested their time and money to trial these innovations that have proved so successful.

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