John Hogg (Queensland, Deputy-President) Share this | Hansard source

I did not intend to participate in this section of the debate but I think it raises a very important issue, as Senator Bartlett has said. Whilst it was quite providential for Senator Ian Macdonald to have a go at the latte greenies, I did not know that the greenies were on latte. That is something new. I reject the notion that the Labor government in Queensland is a George Street government. The Beattie government has shown that it is prepared to get out into the rural and regional areas. It has cabinet meetings in rural and regional Queensland. Only recently, it had a meeting in the Bundaberg area. I think anyone would take their hats off to the Beattie government for the initiatives it has in its civic cabinet meetings, in which it involves the local people.

It has been rightly identified that there is a water problem in the state of Queensland. I do not think there is any doubt about that at all. But the one thing that no government, regardless of its persuasion, can do is make it rain. There has been a critical shortage of water in Queensland over a number of years, brought about in part by the distinct lack of rain in the south-east corner in particular. Mr Acting Deputy President Brandis, you are probably only too well aware that whilst the rain is falling on the coastal regions, it is not necessarily falling in the catchment areas. That is the real nub of the problem.

Servicing the Brisbane area alone, there are two major dams, Somerset and Wivenhoe. The problem that the Brisbane area is experiencing has come about purely and simply because there has been insufficient fall in the catchment area to raise the level of those dams. But that does not mean that initiatives should not be taken and do not need to be taken to look at the proper recycling and reuse of water. I believe that will take some time to come to fruition, but it will also take some time for the public to accept that the need is there.

I think, and I am sure Senator Bartlett would agree, that it has taken some time for the people in Brisbane to become used to the restrictions that we face at this time. Having come to grips with that, they are modifying their behaviour in such a way that the resource is being used more frugally. Even in my own home, from the water rates that we get on a quarterly basis, we can see the diminished use that we have over the previous year at any one point in time.

I believe Australians, and particularly those in south-east Queensland, are becoming water conscious. I think there has to be a cooperative attack on the water shortage problem in the future even if it does rain substantially—as I understand it has this week in Queensland—at the local, the state and the federal government levels to ensure that the resources are put into water management such that the population explosion that we are experiencing in south-east Queensland will be able to live there in reasonable peace, comfort and style. Unless there is a concerted and coordinated approach there we will have different tiers of government fighting each other about who owns the problem, what the problem is and how the problem is to be resolved. I look forward to a cooperative spirit in this area to ensure that the standard of living expected by many people in the populous area of south-east Queensland can be maintained over a long period of time.

Question agreed to.