Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I want to provide an additional component to an answer to a question from the member for Flinders yesterday. I advise the House that the government is well aware that state authorities are taking important steps to improve the quality of treated sewage and waste water that is discharged off the coast and that the government supports those steps. I also point out that the National Water Quality Management Strategy and its recycled water guidelines have moved away from the ABC classifications—which were never standard anyway but which varied from jurisdiction to jurisdiction—and, instead, promote recycled water that is fit for purpose, using a risk management framework which has been developed to assist states and local governments to better protect the environment and human health.