Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about an important landmark project that is about to commence in Cranbourne: the construction of the Cranbourne Aquatic and Leisure Centre. This facility is to be built at the Casey Indoor Leisure Centre in Cranbourne East. The facility will include a 50-metre lap pool with moveable boom, a toddlers pool, a hydrotherapy pool, a water slide, a spa, a sauna, a steam room and a gymnasium. It is a great facility. A particularly unique feature of this pool is that it will produce the most environmentally self-sufficient local government pool in Australia.

During the construction phase and after completion, the project will not use any potable water and will save approximately 30 million litres of water a year. This project will set the standard for pools created from here on in, particularly in water usage, which is critically important in the new era of water shortages. The water savings are going to be achieved by the installation of a two-million litre underground tank for the collection of stormwater from the nearby Casey Indoor Leisure Centre. This tank will be used to store water to back-wash the pool each week.

Cranbourne is part of the City of Casey, which is the third fastest growing municipality in Australia. Water shortages feature prominently in this area, and Cranbourne is ahead of the game in many respects, with many new housing estates using recycled water. The project is going to cost about $37 million and will be predominantly funded by the Casey council. It is providing the bulk of the funds. The state government has pledged about $2.5 million through its Better Pools program. At this point in time there is no federal funding and, given the nature of this water-saving project, I do not think that that is satisfactory in this era. We should be taking a leading role in promoting this exciting water-saving initiative by the Casey council. Indeed, today a delegation from the City of Casey is coming up to Canberra to seek federal government funding for the project. The Mayor of the City of Casey, Colin Butler; Deputy Mayor, Kevin Bradford; Councillor Mick Moreland; chief executive officer Mike Tyler; and the manager of infrastructure, Ray Butler, will brief the federal opposition on this great project and seek avenues of funding support. They will be meeting the shadow minister for water and infrastructure, Anthony Albanese, and the shadow minister for trade and regional development, Simon Crean.

As the federal member whose electorate this great facility is in, I wholeheartedly support their endeavours and will do what I can to ensure that federal funding is provided for this project. I understand that this delegation will be meeting with my federal government counterparts in the next sitting fortnight, and I am also aware of the support of the member for La Trobe, Jason Wood, and the member for Flinders, Greg Hunt. This is a fantastic project which has bipartisan support but no federal funding. There is an opportunity here for us put our money where our mouths are and support a brilliant, innovative project. I commend this delegation for coming up here and I wish them well in their endeavours.