Page 3107 - Week 07 - Thursday, 30 June 2011
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On water, the next 12 months will see the directorate undertake significant work on water reform. This will take place at different levels, starting from the localised, small-scale catchment level affecting a local community and their neighbourhood right up to the Murray-Darling Basin level which affects four different states and the ACT.
Whatever the context in which we look at water, whether it is the neighbourhood context or the basin-wide context, the issue is the same. We Australians need to learn to do more with less. We need to be more efficient with our water use. We need to grow more food while at the same time start delivering more water to our environmental assets. It is a big challenge that we must address both at a national level and a local level. It will be a big 12 months on the water reform agenda, and the Greens would urge everybody in this debate, whether it be the minister, the opposition, public commentators, to be guided by the science and the evidence in their comments.
The urban waterways project is a good example. Various pieces of work will be undertaken during the year to look at the project. There will be a substantial review of think water, act water and we await public consultation on that. Also, there will be an ICRC inquiry into the economic, environmental and social benefits and costs of urban waterways compared to a grey-water industry. These will be important aspects of assessing the project’s impact overall.
Before I move on to make a few comments on the Murray-Darling, let me say that, in light of Mrs Dunne’s comments on the urban ponds, the Greens strongly support these projects. I see a real potential in them. I think that community support for them is actually very strong. Yes, I acknowledge that some members of the community have expressed concerns. I have seen some of that correspondence. I think the concerns are diverse, sometimes conflicting.
What is clear is that significant numbers of people in the community are embracing the urban ponds with real enthusiasm. The volunteer time being put into them is enormous. I gather the recent planting at the Dickson wetlands was scheduled to run from something like 11 am to 3 pm but it was all finished by 1 o’clock because so many people turned up to get involved in the planting that all the work was done in half the time that was anticipated. So that is, I guess, the social capital side of it, to use a somewhat jargonistic term.
There are, of course, the environmental benefits. We have spoken in this place about the state of the lake, Lake Burley Griffin. We are facing similar problems with Lake Tuggeranong and Lake Ginninderra. I think it is fair to say that these projects have real potential to improve the water quality of the run-off that is flowing into the lakes and have a substantial impact on improving that. And slowing some of that water down, taking out nutrients, taking out other pollutants upstream, filtering it naturally though these ponds has a real potential to have significant impacts across our community, aside from the intended irrigation outcomes that I know the minister has spoken about extensively.
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