Trevor Evans (Brisbane, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Waste Reduction and Environmental Management) Share this | Hansard source

For 30 years on the first Sunday of March thousands of volunteers right across Australia have rolled up their sleeves and put some gloves on to join in with Clean Up Australia Day. It has become our nation's largest community based environmental event, and it's a very practical way for people to make a positive difference for their local environment and, of course, to meet some like-minded people around their community too.

I spent Sunday attending four Clean Up Australia Day events around Brisbane. They included an early morning event helping to clean up New Farm Park with Councillor Vicki Howard, then a clean-up along Crosby Road in Albion with Councillor David McLachlan and Tim Nicholls MP. This was followed by a clean-up event organised by Brisbane City Council and with Cleanaway at Victoria Park in Spring Hill. And, finally, a river clean-up event with the member for Bonner along the Lower Brisbane River catchment. This was run by the very formidable Ocean Crusaders. At that last event, I stood next to a wall of rubbish and debris that had been pulled out of the Brisbane River—about 2½ tonnes worth of rubbish, including some old bottles that we estimate date back probably to the 1950s, 1960s or 1970s.

There's obviously a lot of hard work to be done to clean up our waterways. The health of the Brisbane River has always been a key priority for me, since I was first elected back in 2016, and that's because the Brisbane River and its catchment is truly our most significant environmental asset in South-East Queensland. And I'm very much looking forward to some further river rehabilitation work that will be occurring in Brisbane over the coming months this year, following my hard fight and advocacy in this place to secure resources and support for this important priority. For example the Ocean Crusaders will hold Paddle Against Plastic, an event where community volunteers in kayaks and watercraft will be removing significant debris from the Brisbane River. Another project will see Conservation Volunteers Australia run a community-led campaign with local students and community groups to remove plastics and other debris from Breakfast Creek. These are exactly the type of community driven solutions we need to tackle the harmful impact of plastics and pollutions in our waterways.

All up, I have worked hard to secure further funding of $1.15 million for projects to improve the health of the Brisbane River on top of the $760,000 I delivered in my first term. Taken together, and working together with everyone, these activities and projects are making a real difference to protect and revitalise our local waterways and will, hopefully, keep the Brisbane River blue.

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