Louise Markus (Greenway, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was pleasantly surprised when federal funding of $77.4 million from the Water for the Future program was given to the New South Wales government in a funding package to help restore the health of the Hawkesbury-Nepean River in Western Sydney. I have strongly advocated for some time that the Hawkesbury-Nepean River needed help. As recently as February this year, I called on the government to ensure that in the next budget they included funding specifically for recovery programs for the river. The budget was announced, but in the six programs packaged under the Water for the Future program none mentioned the Hawkesbury-Nepean; none mentioned river recovery programs. So you can imagine my surprise when, eight days after the budget, press releases hit my desk announcing the $77 million recovery package for the Hawkesbury-Nepean. I am delighted that the Hawkesbury-Nepean will at last get some real help.

In February this year, the shadow minister for water, Greg Hunt, and I toured the river to see firsthand the work that had been done at a local level to clean up many of the problems. On that day we announced a vision for the year 2020—a long-term plan including consultation with the community and a comprehensive plan of action. The goal is for the river to be of the best quality of any semi-urban river in Australia. I said then that we have to have a permanent weed eradication program, we have to increase environmental flows and we have to improve nutrient control. I am pleased to see, in the announcement, that all those matters are being addressed.

The $77.4 million is part of a bigger package that will see $5.1 million from the New South Wales government and Hawkesbury City Council, along with further contributions of $14.2 million from landholders—a significant and ambitious funding program. But how real will it be; how much of that funding will make its way to the seven projects attached to the package? The federal Labor government has handed over $77.4 million, money that was not identified in the budget, to the New South Wales government to manage. We all know what a basket case the New South Wales government is when it comes to economic management—very similar to their federal colleagues, who in a very short time have not only spent the surplus left by the coalition but also recklessly plunged this nation into levels of debt and deficit unprecedented in the history of this nation. Two-thirds of the debt that will be owed by taxpayers in 2012-13 is due to new spending decisions taken by the Rudd government over the past 18 months, since November 2007.

I question how $14.2 million is going to be raised from landholders. Will this be through voluntary contributions? That would be very hard, given the heavy burden of paying back the Rudd government’s $300 billion debt—or is it a $315 billion debt? Maybe the New South Wales state government will impose a levy. I am sure that landowners will not be happy if that burden is placed on them, given New South Wales is already Australia’s most expensive state in which to live.

What about the $5.1 million from the New South Wales government? I hope that is forthcoming. The New South Wales government is slashing jobs on railway stations and it has failed to pay hospital accounts so the doctors and nurses have had to purchase their own supplies and they have even closed parts of the members dining room in Parliament House. Where are they going to raise $5.1 million? I just hope that this funding package is not conditional on the in-kind and complementary funding from the New South Wales government and other contributors. The river deserves secure long-term funding to ensure the important work of recovery, nutrient control, water quality and river flow is a continuous program of river care.

We also need transparency and accountability about the use of federal funding when it goes to the cash-strapped states. I note that program partnerships include the New South Wales Department of Water and Energy, Sydney Water, the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Hawkesbury Council and the Hawkesbury-Nepean Catchment Management Authority. I said earlier that the announced plan was significant and ambitious. Reading through the proposed programs I note that included in the funding package is a water treatment plant to be constructed at the existing South Windsor sewerage treatment plant. How much of the $7.4 million will go to that plant? How much will be left across the other six programs? It is one thing to make an announcement but quite another to provide delivery. People need to watch what Labor do, and I will be watching closely.

In closing, our environment and our river are too important to play politics with. I only hope that the funding is real and actually results in delivery and action. I hope the programs go ahead and the Hawkesbury-Nepean River is restored to a more sustainable level. As the member for Greenway, based out in the Hawkesbury, I will continue to advocate for a healthier river and will be closely watching for when and how these programs—(Time expired)