Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to rise and inform the House that this week is National Water Week, and I know that across a number of electorates throughout Australia many Australian communities are experiencing the ravages of what is now Australia’s worst drought. The same applies in my electorate of Moncrieff on the Gold Coast. While the Gold Coast has had a regular amount of rainfall over the past 12 months, the fact is that as a community we are concerned about the declining levels of rainfall that have been occurring throughout Australia and on the Gold Coast.

I was very pleased, therefore, to know that the Howard government has responded very effectively and comprehensively through the National Water Initiative. In particular, we have allocated some $2 billion under the National Water Initiative to a host of community projects, both at a local level and at a national level, to ensure that we are doing all that we can to bring to the forefront of people’s minds the need to conserve water.

For those of us on the Gold Coast and in my electorate of Moncrieff, I was especially pleased to be able to allocate to a number of community groups throughout my electorate funding that was provided under the Community Water Grants program. The Community Water Grants program is an Australian government initiative that the Howard government introduced, which has provided thus far some $61 million to over 1,750 community groups across Australia, all of whom have come up with different initiatives to play a part in conserving water. The water savings from these community projects are projected to be around 18 gigalitres—that is, 18 billion litres of water—every single year, and a second round of grants is currently being assessed.

I was very pleased in my electorate of Moncrieff to be able to announce to Bellevue Park State School, to the Friends of Federation Walk, to Impact Ministries and to Miami State School grants that respectively were $48,000, $44,800, $31,800 and $27,000. Each of these grants will play a crucial role for these community groups to take initiatives in their local community on the Gold Coast to make sure that we conserve water. Bellevue Park State School is obtaining its grant of $48,000 to install new water tanks to flush the toilets within the school grounds. Friends of Federation Walk, a group with which I am very familiar—and I am very proud to call Lyn Wright, their convener, a good friend of mine—is receiving some $44,800 for the expansion of a recycled effluent water irrigation system. The Friends of Federation Walk is responsible for maintaining what is a scenic walk along the spit on the Gold Coast, an area that is battered by the harsh salt winds from the ocean and has very little access to fresh water. So this $44,800 will play a very great role in ensuring that recycled effluent water is used to irrigate—what has been countless hours of hard yakka by local Gold Coasters who have planted literally thousands of trees—that area.

Impact Ministries is receiving their grant for access to and rehabilitation of a dam enabling an irrigation project as part of their church preschool facilities, and Miami State School is receiving a school indoor water efficiency project grant, which will amount to $27,000. I commend the Howard government for its National Water Initiative. I encourage Gold Coasters and all Australians to be water wise in this National Water Week and I commend this grants program to the House.