Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to take note of document No. 3, the National Water Commission report. In doing so, I want to highlight again to listeners and readers of these very enthralling debates the Australian government’s water fund, which involves some $2 billion that the Australian government will be investing in water infrastructure to improve water management and practices in the stewardship of the country’s scarce water resources—a very creditable initiative of the Howard government, another initiative which will not only help in saving that scarce commodity but also be very important to Australia’s continued growth, particularly in rural and regional parts of Australia.

During the week, I had the opportunity of meeting with a delegation from the Hughenden area of Northern Queensland. For those senators who are not familiar with the geography of Queensland, Hughenden is roughly halfway between Townsville and Mount Isa. It is important cattle-producing country—it also produces goats and sheep—and could produce a great deal of agriculture were water permanently and readily available. The Hughenden council and the community there have had an application in for a water storage facility for many years now, but they simply cannot get through the red tape of the Queensland government’s water allocation management plan. These management plans have been under consideration now for years. I cannot recall how long they have been going but it is many years, and nothing seems to happen within Queensland. It is pretty much the same as the health situation in Queensland, only not quite as dangerous to human life. But it is one of these things where inertia just seems to set into the Queensland government. They are incapable of making any sort of decision. This proposal by the Hughenden council—and there has been a similar one by the Richmond Shire Council a bit further west for the same thing—has been held up by the inability of the Queensland government to make a decision on this or indeed, as I say, anything else.

Those communities do have carefully thought through plans for water storage—plans that would result in a real backing for the industries in those areas and for the communities that are supported by those particular industries. These communities would like to be part of the federal government’s National Water Initiative. They would dearly like to access some of the funds that might be available. But they cannot get past first base, because of the Queensland government. I would urge the Queensland government to start making some decisions.

The only decision the Queensland government has made up in that part of the world as it relates to water is to absolutely ban any activity on a lot of the rivers that run into the gulf—rivers that for most of the wet season are absolutely chock-a-block with water. The Queensland government has passed wild rivers legislation in an attempt to garner the second preferences of the latte greenies in Brisbane’s leafy suburbs. They have introduced and passed this legislation that affects only those people right up in the gulf. It will have a disastrous effect on those people. But there are only a couple of hundred that it affects and it is out of sight, out of mind for the George Street, Brisbane government that we have in Queensland, a government that is interested only in the politics of any situation and not interested in the lives of those people who live in more remote parts of the state whose wealth and economic future depend upon sensible management of our natural resources. I would certainly urge the Queensland government to start making some serious decisions on their water management plans so that communities like Hughenden, Richmond and many others in the north can actually get going and get to work on the very sensible and sustainable water management proposals they have in hand.

Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the report from the National Water Commission from December 2004 to 30 June 2005. I was going to make a few comments in praise of statements by the federal government with regard to water issues but, before I get too positive, I will disagree with a bit of what Senator Ian Macdonald has just said with regard to the wild rivers policy of the Queensland government. I am as comfortable being critical of the Queensland government as he is but I think that is actually a quite beneficial policy, not just environmentally but long term for ensuring sustainability for the Far North of Queensland.

Having voiced that contradiction, let me turn to praising something someone from the government said. Mr Turnbull, the new parliamentary secretary who has responsibility for water policy, was reported as saying that he believed that towns and cities would be forced to use recycled water for drinking in the future because of shortages, whether they were brought on by climate change or by other things. He gave his support to the use of recycled water and the introduction of it into the drinking stream—with proper safeguards, of course. I think this is a very welcome sign from the minister.

I also note that the chairman of the National Water Commission, who was speaking at a water conference in Brisbane, which I think was earlier this week, also made a comment that recycling of water, including into the drinking stream, is workable and something that needs to be considered much more strongly. That is something that I also agree with. I think we need to be putting much more effort into this. There is no one single solution to addressing water issues, whether they be urban water shortages or water use in rural industries, but certainly in the context of urban water usage I believe recycling of water is something we could do much more, not just for drinking but also for industry and for plenty of other uses as well where the water does not necessarily need to be treated back up to such a high standard.

I have spoken before in this chamber about the vision and the political strength of the Mayor of Toowoomba, Di Thorley, and the Toowoomba City Council in their determination to look long term and to recognise that that city will simply not be able to function in a couple of decades time because of serious water shortages—they already have serious water shortages—unless they do something significant. They are planning to build a very high-quality water retreatment plant. Ironically, after cleaning the water up to a quality not just high enough to drink but high enough to use in dialysis machines, they will then put it back in the dam which will make it much dirtier again. But I guess that is part of addressing the public perception issues that are still there.

It is important that we have political leadership on these issues. I point to the very poor leadership shown by the New South Wales government in refusing to accept and examine options for recycling water purely, according to statements by people like Minister Sartor, on the grounds that people would not accept it, so they should not do it. That has to be the weakest excuse I have heard. It is worth noting, as has been pointed out, that in many respects parts of Sydney’s drinking water system already involves people consuming recycled effluent. To quote from a report from last year, when a washing machine is:

… drained in Katoomba the water eventually—

after being treated—

makes its way to taps in Richmond and Windsor ...

This is because it is treated and put back into the rivers, it flows down the rivers and goes into another catchment from which it is taken for people to drink after it has been treated again. So, in effect, it already happens and it is something that we should be doing a lot more of.

It is an area in which the Queensland government could do a lot more as well. The Brisbane City Council, instead of wasting its money on stupid road tunnels, should do something about repairing that city’s crumbling water infrastructure, which wastes enormous amounts in leakages each day. That is an area where there is a lot more to be done. Brisbane and south-east Queensland are areas that could benefit from significant investment in recycling of water, and we need to see some leadership shown at local council and state level, hopefully with the federal government kicking in support.

John Hogg (Queensland, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to 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.