Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I wish today to speak on an important matter of public interest which has seen a cruel blow dealt to a small rural community in my home state of Tasmania. I have spoken previously of the effects that the prolonged dry conditions have had on areas of Tasmania—most seriously the areas in the central and southern Midlands, and along the east coast right up to and including Flinders Island. I have spoken of a visit by the coalition’s rural and regional affairs backbench committee to some of these areas and of the heartbreaking stories of struggling individuals and communities. I have also highlighted the plight of the Clyde Valley farmers and the Bothwell community, and it is to this group that I will again turn my attention today.

Last week this community finally heard from the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, Peter Garrett. After months of chasing this minister, requesting appointments and extending an invitation—all of which were ignored, unfortunately—Minister Garrett finally responded to the Bothwell community and the Clyde River farmers and their request for an emergency allocation of water from Lake Crescent. The community had high hopes, but the response from Minister Garrett was not the good news that these drought-weary farmers were relying on.

The background to this issue is simple to understand. Farmers around the Clyde River catchment have, like those in many other parts of my state, been subject to a savage and prolonged period of dryness. Above the valley is Lake Crescent and in very near proximity is Lake Sorell. The farmers in the valley below have lost their regular water source, and the lakes above, while also affected by the dry conditions, have water which would be of great benefit to the farmers who are struggling to water stock and to maintain domestic supplies.

It is true that the state government has assisted this community through the provision of a temporary emergency pipeline from the Shannon River, but this pipeline does not provide for a number of farmers who are upstream from the pipeline’s outlet, which is some 30-odd kilometres below Lake Crescent. Therefore the Clyde River Water Group successfully put the case to Tasmanian government that an emergency allocation of water taken from Lake Crescent would be a suitable and safe way to provide greater assistance.

I will pause here to draw attention to the fact that these farmers are not asking for millions of megalitres of water to be drawn from the lake. They are not cowboys—in fact, they are very responsible farmers. As Tasmanian water minister, David Llewellyn, told Mr Garrett last week, via a rather scathing media release:

The maximum release would have been around 200 megalitres out of the approximately 15,000 megalitres currently in Lake Crescent.

The impact on the lake would have been to take 15 millimetres—a bit over half an inch—off the level of the lake.

I will also draw attention to this community’s track record of responsible water use—and I have mentioned that before in previous contributions. The Commonwealth did approve last year a 2,000-megalitre release of water from Lake Crescent and Lake Sorell for domestic and stock needs. With careful management, the community used only 1,500 megalitres within the permit’s time frame. But the community, unfortunately, was not rewarded for its efficiency—the remaining 500 megalitres was left in the lakes and was not allowed to be used.

So, a few months ago, with the water situation still dire, the Clyde River Water Group tried to put their case to the minister for the environment. They were acutely aware that the decision on a future emergency allocation from Lake Crescent and Lake Sorell hinged on his approval, under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

For those who are not aware of it, an area around the lakes is also listed as a Ramsar wetland and the lakes themselves are home to a fish called the golden galaxias. The Clyde farmers knew that it was critical for Minister Garrett to understand the local issues and to get an idea about the local environment. They even asked him to visit and see for himself. But Minister Garrett decided he did not need a firsthand look at this area. Despite the request, Minister Garrett made two sneaky fly-in fly-out visits to Tasmania during this period and ignored the Clyde farmers’ invitation to visit the site—which is a little over an hour’s drive north of Hobart, where Minister Garrett was courting the media for good news stories.

Minister Garrett also decided that he did not need to meet with the Clyde River Water Group representatives when they actually travelled to Canberra. They had figured that if Mohammed would not come to the mountain they would take the mountain to Mohammed. They came here thinking that they had a meeting with him but ended up meeting only an adviser. On their behalf, representatives of the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association came here in the last sitting fortnight. But again they went home empty-handed, without a decision and without a meeting.

It is interesting here to note the activity of the local member for Lyons, Mr Dick Adams, who said:

I’ve lobbied for as much attention as possible to give consideration to the people of the Bothwell area, from the farmer right through to the township.

Unfortunately, Mr Adams has proved to be completely ineffectual. In fact, that is what the local community is saying. Bothwell farmer Anthony Archer said on ABC Radio on 24 November:

Dick Adams is our local member, where is Dick?

He certainly hasn’t had any influence over this decision and I think it’s pretty disappointing.

I know that Mr Adams was keen to see some support for the farmers, but it is quite tragic that he has had absolutely no influence over Minister Garrett in representing his constituents. It really is a great disappointment that, despite any work that he might have done, he has had absolutely no effect for the benefit of these farmers.

In fact if Mr Garrett had met with the group that day or if he had found the time to visit the site in question he would be aware of the following with regard to the Ramsar site and the golden galaxia. The Ramsar wetland, named in Minister Garrett’s media release of 20 November, has been dry, with cattle and sheep grazing on it, for 10 years. For this wetland to be inundated again it will require both Lake Sorell and Lake Crescent to be full. With respect to the lake levels and the galaxia, Lake Sorell has a rocky lake bottom upon which the fish can spawn. The Tasmanian government has taken action to ensure that sufficient water is provided to support the fish that remain in that lake. Lake Crescent has only a rocky foreshore that water must be rising over before the galaxia can be induced to spawn.

Until the control gates, built in the 1990s by the Inland Fisheries Service, are lowered to their original level, Lake Crescent is unable to fill from Lake Sorell, which receives the first run-off in the catchment. Low water levels contribute to turbidity, which has no effect on the galaxia but is a major concern for the local fishing community. It does have a large effect on the trout which also live in the lake and which, given Minister Garrett’s concern for the galaxia, are a major predator to the galaxia. When the water levels are low the turbidity increases and the trout find the galaxia hard to locate in the cloudy waters, so they lose an assured food source. If Minister Garrett had bothered to meet or visit he might have learnt these facts about how these lakes operate.

It is interesting to note that the recreational-fishing sector have come out strongly in favour of Minister Garrett’s decision. The Anglers Alliance chairman, Richard Dax, on ABC radio recently applauded the minister’s decision, saying, ‘It’s good sense.’ Perhaps it is for the trout and for the fishermen who like to fish for them—as I am a fisherman myself, I must admit it is a great pastime—but it is not so for anyone living downstream. Interestingly, one of the reasons Lake Crescent is so low is that it became infested with carp, which is another major pest species, and it was drained in the interest of saving the trout fishery. The fact that the interests of the trout and the fishermen seem to be taken as greater than even those of the galaxia—which might be nice feed for the trout—is quite interesting.

Minister Garrett himself admits that the fish will be lucky to survive the summer, because the lake is expected to evaporate to a level where it will all but cease to exist. Farmers were seeking just 1.3 per cent of the water in the lake—as I said, 15 millimetres off the depth. So it is amazing that this very small request has been refused. Again, if Minister Garrett had bothered to visit the area in one of his sneaky fly-in fly-out trips to Tasmania I am sure he would have realised that this relatively small water release would not endanger the golden galaxia but would provide a significant assistance to the community of Bothwell and to drought stricken farmers.

Both the farmers and the state government have expended valuable energy and resources to meet the rigidity in the application of the EPBC Act. Unfortunately, not so Minister Garrett, who was two days late and has confirmed his complete ineptitude by missing the 20-business-day deadline, as set out in the EPBC Act, for responding to the application. As I said earlier, the Tasmanian government figures indicated that the maximum release would have been around 200 megalitres out of the approximately 15,000 megalitres currently in the lake.

In the meantime the Tasmanian government is taking short-term measures to protect the golden galaxia population by investigating opportunities for the establishment of satellite populations in other suitable water bodies and by abstaining from any water transfers between Lake Sorell and Lake Crescent to maintain the maximum water level possible in Lake Sorell until the drought breaks. As I mentioned earlier, the Tasmanian government in this respect is being quite responsible.

So it appears that Minister Garrett has made a decision on a fish that is best protected in Lake Sorell rather than Lake Crescent. He has made a decision to save water that, by his own admission, will evaporate anyway, and he has been unwilling to meet the members of this rural community face to face, leaving the hard work to his party colleagues at both a state and a federal level. He is also claiming to protect a wetland that has been dry for a decade and has cattle grazing it and, to add insult to injury, the minister is so incompetent that he even failed to meet his own deadlines under the EPBC Act. Just so this is not seen as a partisan presentation from the coalition against the Labor Party, I will leave the last words to the Tasmanian state Minister for Primary Industries and Water, the Hon. David Llewellyn, who said in his press release:

“It was a clear choice between leaving the water in Lake Crescent to evaporate, or releasing a small amount—

and I reiterate ‘a small amount’, which is up to 200 megalitres out of 15,000—

to alleviate some of the impact of the drought on downstream property owners.”

…            …            …

“But if the current drought conditions continue over the coming summer and autumn, then the Golden Galaxias in Lake Crescent and the Clyde catchment community face a very bleak period,” …