Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a)

recognises that the desalination plant planned for Victoria’s Bass Coast near Phillip Island:

(i)

will produce 1.4 million tonnes of greenhouse gases annually during construction and a further 1.2 million tonnes annually during operation,

(ii)

will discharge 280 billion litres of saline concentrate effluent into the ocean annually,

(iii)

may adversely affect several nationally protected species including the orange-bellied parrot, the growling grass frog and the giant Gippsland earthworm, and

(iv)

may damage the rocky reef habitat directly off the proposed plant site and Aboriginal artefacts; and

(b)

notes, amongst other options, that the installation of rain water tanks in every Melbourne property would save an estimated 50 billion litres of water a year with no such environmental cost.

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a shorter statement than last time.

Leave granted.

The proposed Victorian desalination plant is currently subject to a statutory assessment process. A detailed environmental effects statement has been released by Victoria for public comment. Comprehensive scoping requirements require the environmental effects statement to thoroughly examine the impact of the proposal on terrestrial and marine biodiversity, including nationally listed species, and on the Western Port Bay Ramsar wetland. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts has a statutory decision-making role in relation to this proposal that will be informed by all relevant information, including public comments on the environmental effects statement and the proponent’s response to those comments. It is inappropriate to prejudge the outcome of the assessment process in this chamber. Therefore, we will be opposing the motion.

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—this motion in no way makes any inappropriate judgement. It simply calls the Senate’s attention to the fact that there is a very large environmental impact, including 1.4 million tonnes of greenhouse gases produced annually during construction and nearly the same throughout the life of this desalination plant, in an age of catastrophic climate change. This motion calls the Senate’s attention to these facts. It does not prejudge it; it simply informs the Senate, and the government ought to be supporting it.

Question agreed to.