Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to stand here and talk about the $75 billion infrastructure pipeline that this government has. Part of what I want to talk about is probably the one that I think is the most important: water projects.

We all know that water in Australia is liquid gold—that's my view. It's what underpins so much of rural and regional Australia. If I look at the projects that the government has already committed to, over $570 million of capital funding is from the fund and loan facility. The government is absolutely determined to tackle issues around water infrastructure.

Every day, we're getting on with the job of building the water infrastructure that's going to take us through the 21st century. As I said, there is $580 million for the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund and $2 billion in the National Water Infrastructure Loan Facility. This is really critical in my patch when we look at the lesser amount of rain that we've been receiving. If we look at one of the very important projects, the Myalup-Wellington project, that is really going to make a huge difference in my part of the world. This water project that this government is investing in will actually prevent between 60,000 to 110,000 tonnes of salt from entering the Wellington Dam every year. This is a great project and it's part of the pipeline of the government's projects ahead. This will boost agriculture, horticulture and the forestry industry that is very much part of this. It will create local jobs, without any question, and it will create economic uplift. It's going to attract even further investment in our region—that's what this investment by our government in water infrastructure is doing—and it will help to diversify the economy in WA's south-west.

The Wellington Dam is the second-largest reservoir in Western Australia. When we look at this project, the irrigation system that we have in the Darling Scarp is probably one of the most environmentally sound projects you will find. It's a gravity-fed system, and the piping that's been done in the Harvey irrigation system has seen all of the channel losses disappear and all of the evaporation disappear. So it's much more effective, efficient and sustainable as a result. This project is going to add to the Collie irrigation system. As well as desalinating the Wellington Dam, it plans to pipe the Collie River Irrigation System, which heads further south wrote down towards Waterloo. We'll see efficiency gains, both in channel losses and evaporation out of it, and much better quality water, because it will desalinate the water, as well. This is what really builds small communities and regional communities right around Australia.

This project will be a key part of underpinning the prosperity of the region and our small communities. Where does the water for our dairy farms come from? It comes from this type of irrigation infrastructure, as does the water for our beef farms and for those involved in fruit production and vegetable production all throughout our marvellous south-west. Not only is it a quality water that comes out of our Stirling Dam closer to Harvey, once this project is completed and we see the desalination in the Wellington Dam, were going to see that same opportunity. The two lots of grasses, those that exist with the Stirling Dam and those that exist with the Wellington Dam: at the moment it's like comparing chalk and cheese. We've lost a number of farmers because of the lack of production capacity because of the effect of the salt.

When we talk about real nation-building infrastructure, this is exactly what we are talking out and why the investment by this government is so important. These types of projects, as I said, will underpin these small rural and regional communities and add to economic growth, productivity and sustainability. There is nothing better than this. When you go to wash a dairy yard and you don't need to turn on a pump—because the actual head on the water, because its gravity fed, if you turn the actual hose on fully it could lift you off the ground—you know you've got a very effective and sustainable system. That's exactly how this works. I am particularly pleased that this government is investing in nation-building infrastructure like the critical water infrastructure that we see through the Myalup-Wellington project.

See this speech in context