Linda White (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Recently I had the pleasure of meeting with John Gemmill and Pete Smith, the CEO and President, respectively, of the Clean Ocean Foundation. The Clean Ocean Foundation is a fantastic environmental charity that was formed in 2000 by families, fishermen and surfers who were concerned by the high level of pollution at Mornington Peninsula surf beaches, such as Gunnamatta. The foundation campaigns to limit pollution in our oceans and restore ocean health through its conservation work.

I was interested to learn about the foundation's campaign to promote and establish recycled water initiatives in Australia. I would guess that most Australians consider desalination to be best practice in water cleaning and conservation, but this is not necessarily the case. In fact, for every one litre of potable water produced through desalination, two litres of polluted water are generated as a by-product. This polluted water is dumped into our oceans and contributes to a range of environmental pressures on marine ecosystems.

Australia's reefs, beaches and fisheries all suffer when our oceans are not clean. This then affects the sustainability of our economy and our agriculture industry and worsens drought. Tourists do not want to swim in dirty water or visit a dying reef. Australians do not want to eat polluted fish. Our agriculture industry needs water to irrigate our crops, that's for sure.

Having served on the board of Greater Western Water, I'm no stranger to best-practice water policy. Recycled water systems are by far the most sustainable option available to us. Unlike desalination, recycled water does not produce harmful waste outflows that end up polluting our oceans. The water that goes into a recycled system stays in that system. Although La Nina has given us more water than we know what to do with, our system is very fragile. We can make better choices. The challenge for the Clean Ocean Foundation and others is to convince the public and governments that recycled water is the future. That is something I'm glad to say I support.