John Forrest (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—thank you for the opportunity to support the member for Page. What the public do not see are the numerous amount of parliamentary committees that beaver away in the public interest—the Public Works Committee is one that I am immensely proud of having served on it for some time—ensuring that taxpayers' money is properly and well spent and there is good value for money.

Christmas Island over the years has seen the investment of massive amounts of Commonwealth funding with parliamentary approval via the public works process, so it was a good opportunity to visit and recap on some of those projects. I have had concerns for some time that Christmas Island was under enormous pressure in terms of its public infrastructure—that is, power supply, water supply, sewerage treatment, medical health and all those sorts of things. A lot of people do not appreciate the need for these things because latterly they think that all that happens at Christmas Island is the detention of people seeking asylum. In fact, for 100 years Christmas Island has been a major area for the production of fertiliser and that continues to be undertaken on Christmas Island although there is some uncertainty about its ongoing future.

Most of the activity and presence of Australians on Christmas Island now is to do with department of immigration activity. I was really pleased to have an opportunity to visit the island along with the chair of the committee, the member for Page. A concern that continues to worry me though is the water supply and I continue to quote Julius Caesar who always said the first thing to secure is the water supply. If you secure the water supply for the citadel, you ensure its ongoing security.

Christmas Island as a limestone island has a water supply from the tropical rainforest stored underground naturally and this is then extracted for public use. I was a little alarmed to discover that the end result of the sewerage treatment plant, which the Public Works Committee approved in the last parliament, is sludge. It is a solid waste that needs to be disposed of. The most convenient place to dispose of it is on the top of this reservoir of water storage, a limestone ridge at the peak of the landfill site on Christmas Island. So the report quite rightly asked for this matter to be reviewed. All the questions the committee asked whilst on the island received a vacant response as to whether the water supply was secure. That is something that the committee very strongly feels needs to be reviewed immediately.

I will finish my remarks by thanking the committee. I also particularly thank Anthony Overs and Thomas Gregory, who has now moved on to other committees around the parliament, and Dr Alison Clegg. I commend this report to the parliament.

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