Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with great pleasure that I rise tonight to contribute to this debate and focus my attention on the magnificent Gippsland Lakes. Although they are magnificent, they are also exposed to many impacts which I fear are degrading the system to a point where greater intervention is required by both state and federal governments. I often describe the Gippsland Lakes as the Great Barrier Reef of the south—such is its importance to my region. For context, the lakes are an impressive coastal lagoon system, but they are subjected to significant impacts from a vast catchment area.

The importance of the lakes system cannot be overestimated to Gippsland. From a social perspective, there's recreational boating and fishing, and people are living alongside. Some of the most expensive properties in my electorate are waterfront homes on the Gippsland Lakes. Things like school camps have been established around the lakes system. Economically, there's direct and indirect employment through things like cruises and the hospitality sector. From a cultural perspective, there is a long history of the Gunaikurnai people, and there is an abundance of food associated with the Gippsland Lakes. It's a great source of food around the estuarine system.

Environmentally, it's a dynamic system, and it has changed dramatically since European settlement. What was a system which was brackish-to-fresh water, intermittently opening to the ocean when a natural entrance would form, has become more of a system which is brackish-to-salt water because of the establishment of an artificial entrance in 1899. The artificial entrance was required at the time because the Gippsland Lakes were the highway to take products through Gippsland from Sale all the way to the coastline and move products from the Gippsland region. When you think about the Gippsland Lakes, there are very important towns established right on the lakes system—my own home town of Lakes Entrance, at the very commencement of the system, through to Metung, Paynesville and Loch Sport. The system is navigable all the way from Lakes Entrance to Sale even today.

It is a series of lakes—Lake King, Lake Victoria, Lake Wellington, Lake Reeve—and it's the environmental future of the lakes and rivers in my region which causes me most concern as I stand here this evening. I think there's been an ongoing failure to properly measure, manage and take the practical action required to improve water quality and reduce the impacts of pests and ensure the lakes are passed on to future generations to enjoy. I want to stress from the outset that I acknowledge that management of the catchment and the Gippsland Lakes, as with most natural resource issues, is primarily a state responsibility, but there are some federal obligations here, which I'll get to later. What we do when we have a state like Victoria which is continuing to fail to meet its responsibilities in relation to such an important estuarine system?

My concerns regarding the ecological condition of the Gippsland Lakes and catchment and the comparatively small annual investment from the Commonwealth and the state government into the system are exacerbated by the refusal to even properly measure and monitor things like water quality in the system. By way of background, I have repeatedly raised concerns on behalf of my constituents regarding the condition of the lakes and the lack of comprehensive water monitoring in the catchment. I've also raised concerns about the disjointed management structure of the entire system and the failure to undertake an independent audit since the last one was undertaken in 1998. A lot has changed since 1998. At that time, CSIRO was commissioned to take a very close look at the issues around water quality and nutrient run-off and their contribution to algal bloom, which had been a blight on the system at different times throughout the lakes' history.

Rather than a crisis driven approach to the management of the Gippsland Lakes, the time to spend the money is now. Properly measuring, evaluating and taking action to improve the quality of the rivers and lakes should be done now, not when you have an algal bloom. The time for those sorts of decisions is now. We are just simply not taking the necessary action to properly monitor, measure and take the action required to enhance Gippsland Lakes for future generations.

It disturbs me that, from my research, the Victorian government contributes less than $3 million per year of direct investment in protecting and enhancing Gippsland Lakes and its catchment while the Commonwealth provides some ad hoc grants through things like Landcare and Coastcare through various competitive grants streams. Contrast this with the estimated combined investment in the Great Barrier Reef of state and Commonwealth money of $150 million per year. I'm not begrudging the Great Barrier Reef its status as the Great Barrier Reef. I'm simply making a comparison that there is a lot of work going on on the Great Barrier Reef, in terms of catchment, run-off and issues associated with this natural icon—in the order of about $150 million per year—and the Gippsland Lakes is receiving somewhere in the order of $3 million per year. This is the largest inland waterway in Australia. It's of huge significance, not only to the environment but also to the local Gippsland economy through the tourism sector.

The international importance of the lakes system is also something which should be reflected on when land managers are making decisions and when environment ministers are making their priorities known, because the Gippsland Lakes has international importance, particularly relating to migratory birds. The entire catchment retains great cultural significance for the Gunaikurnai people.

This is a vast catchment, when you think about it. It stretches all the way to the industrial heartland of the Latrobe Valley. The Latrobe River flows through there into the Gippsland Lakes and the farming Macalister Irrigation District. The Thomson and Macalister rivers flow through there to the Gippsland Lakes. The Mitchell River flats is a major irrigated agricultural area; it flows through to the Gippsland Lakes. The Tambo River and the Nicholson River are less populated but still exposed to bushfire risk; they both flow into the Gippsland Lakes.

What we saw in the 2019-20 bushfires was a huge sediment run-off event as a direct result of the catchment of the Nicholson and Tambo rivers being heavily impacted. At that time, we were able to secure a one-off $350,000 research project to investigate the impacts of bushfire events on the lakes and the Ramsar wetlands. That report drew attention to the current lack of monitoring and the testing of the lakes, which just reinforces my view that we should be undertaking an independent environmental audit of the lakes system. Go the whole hog! It hasn't been done for more than 25 years. Go the whole hog and take an independent look at the system. Find out what the impacts are in terms of nutrient run-off, and find out what's happening in terms of catchment areas.

The Royal Society of Victoria conducted a roundtable titled Securing the Future of the Gippsland Lakes in May 2023. They made some very significant observations and commentary about the future of the lakes system, which I've taken up directly with the federal minister. Apart from noting that the system is the largest estuarine coastal lagoon system on the Australian continent, and apart from noting that it's one of the most important wetlands in terms of migratory birds, they also made the point that there are multiple upstream factors, which will affect the future of the Gippsland Lakes, that need to be closely monitored. The high nutrient loads, which can lead to toxic algal blooms, need to be monitored.

While the scientists, independent of government and independent of politicians—they don't work in my office; they are certainly independent of my office—are saying, 'You need to do more research,' the Victorian government is steadfastly refusing to invest any more in the catchment or in the lakes themselves. While the Commonwealth and the federal minister's office have been very polite in their responses to my correspondence, they've done absolutely nothing. There needs to be a recognition that coordinated management of the threats to estuarine health requires state and federal governments working in partnership with enthusiastic local volunteers to undertake the action that's required to improve and enhance the environment of a system like the Gippsland Lakes.

All of the evidence points to a system which is under some stress and which is not being properly monitored. Given its social, economic, environmental and cultural importance, I'm urging the state and federal governments to have another look at my request for an independent audit. What we need in Gippsland is more boots and less suits. That's more boots on the ground undertaking practical environmental work—things like weed control, pest animal control and riparian vegetation replanting. Those are the sorts of activities that could lead to careers for young people in Gippsland. We are the custodians of a vast public land estate, but we are not receiving the resources to undertake the work that's required to enhance the region through practical environmental work. I stress again that the Gippsland Lakes are magnificent. I'm not suggesting for a second that we're at the point of a crisis right now. But how do we really know if we're not extensively monitoring what the trends are over a long period of time? How do we really know we're going to pass on the lakes in a better condition if we're not doing the independent environmental audit and the monitoring work?

I say to those opposite and to the state Labor government: stop being the great pretenders of the environmental sector. You like to grandstand and commission reports, but you actually have to invest in the practical on-the-ground work in the regions to make sure we're doing the right thing by the environment for future generations to enjoy regions like the Gippsland Lakes.