Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In my electorate of Lalor and right around the country people are concerned about saving water. They are concerned about climate change, they are concerned about water and they are doing their part. Redmond Repetition Engineers is in my electorate. It was founded in 1981 by John and Marlene Redmond and it continues to operate to this day as a family owned and operated business in Hoppers Crossing in my electorate of Lalor. Since its origins in the family garage, the business has expanded to what it is today—a leading Victorian repetition engineering company employing 43 skilled employees and operating from a complex of 4,000 square metres that houses three modern, purpose-built repetition factories. One of their newest inventions and the reason for me drawing this to the parliament’s attention today is a product called FixAFlush. This product was originally designed to deal with the problem of toilets continuing to run water after they have been flushed—a problem I am sure we are all familiar with, a problem that wastes a lot of water. The insertion of the FixAFlush device into the top of the outlet valve fixes that problem.

However, it was discovered that this device enables you to control the amount of water that is used in a flush of the toilet because the toilet will only continue to flush for the amount of time that you hold your hand on the button. Consequently this has a major application for those households that still have old single-flush toilets, and the installation of this device means that, instead of having to use the full amount of water in the cistern each time you flush the toilet, you can control the amount of water that is used.

I understand that installing one of these devices in an old-style toilet can save as much as 70,000 litres of water a year—70,000 litres. But this actually has an application too for dual-flush toilets. Obviously, they are on two settings—half flush or full flush—but with the installation of this device you can control exactly for how long the toilet flushes. There are occasions where less than a half flush is required to do the job, if I can use that terminology. Consequently, this is a device that can save water in all Australian homes. It is a great local invention in my electorate of Lalor. We are obviously hugely proud of it. We are proud of the Redmond family. We are proud of the fact that they continue to manufacture in my electorate and I recommend it for the consideration of members here. The Redmonds are in Parliament House today.