Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to speak today about some of the wonderful work being done by locals in my electorate of Richmond. It was with great pride and pleasure that I visited a local business in my electorate that was recently selected as one of the few national winners in the Australian government's Humanitarian Supplies Challenge. DFAT put out the challenge last year under three categories—one of them being 'water'. The challenge drew substantial interest, with 77 applications received from 12 countries. Only 13 successful products were selected by the expert panel, including six from Australian companies.

I would like to speak about one of those winners, Aqua Solutions, and the great work that they are undertaking overseas. Aqua Solutions took out the prize in the 'water' category for their product called Squirt. Squirt is a simple, portable water filtration device that provides safe, clean drinking water, and it can easily be deployed following a humanitarian crisis. DFAT has recently added this product to its humanitarian supplies warehouses in Brisbane and Sydney, where it can be rapidly deployed following a humanitarian crisis.

Aqua Solution's general manager, Larry James, and his colleague Wendy Alt kindly took time out to show me around their manufacturing base in Tweed Heads South and to demonstrate the filtration system that won the humanitarian award. They also showed me many of the company's other filtration products. Larry, who was a founding member of the charitable organisation SkyJuice and has been an active director of the foundation for 14 years, saw the need to continue to deliver clean drinking water to developing countries. Developing their products on the back of their aid organisation, they have directly managed many of our emergency response installations. This has included in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Indonesia and Fiji. Larry advised me that they had a lot of requests for water filtration systems that could be used for farms and villages in developing countries and also potentially in remote areas of Australia.

This company determined to carefully design safe, reliable ultra-filtration drinking water systems which are suitable for farmhouses, remote communities, schools, health clinics and many other applications. And that in fact is what they have done in designing all those wonderful products. Their unique, world-patented, compact systems are designed for easy transportation and quick set-up. Lightweight, portable and efficient, they can be operated by non-technical people and provide safe, low-cost, potable water with minimal operator attendance, with a stand-alone capability that requires no or very little power consumption. Most importantly, the filtration systems will remove disease-carrying elements from water such as giardia and will also remove all traces of dirt; therefore, providing very clear, clean drinking water. I commend the great contribution that companies like Aqua Solutions are making to many communities in Australia and overseas. It's wonderful to have such an outstanding local business in my electorate.