Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to respond to the Victorian government’s water plan and, firstly, look at the lost opportunity in relation to recycling as opposed to the plan to steal water from stressed rural communities in the Goulburn Valley and the Eildon district; secondly, look at the inability to provide an ultimate solution for the Gunnamatta outfall, even though I am pleased that there is an interim upgrade, which is of critical importance; and, thirdly, express my support for the desalination plant proposal, which may well be within my electorate. If that is going to help with Victoria’s and my electorate’s water supplies then that is a good thing.

Firstly, in relation to the lost opportunity, there was a plan on the table, which has now been indefinitely sidelined, for replacing with recycled water the drinking water which is being used in the Latrobe Valley for pulp and paper mills and for power stations. That is the way of the Western world. That is the way of the future. That is what is happening in Queensland. It is what should have been happening in Victoria. It is what will not happen in Victoria.

Instead, desperately needed fresh water supplies are to come from Lake Eildon, which at present, I am informed, is at about seven per cent of its actual water volume capacity, and from the Goulburn Valley river system. Ultimately, because of the channel which will be dug connecting the Goulburn Valley with the Murray River system, water will be taken and piped to Melbourne. In other words, vitally needed country water will be taken from country people, placing further stress on rural producers and communities, and siphoned through to Melbourne. I do not think that Melbournians want to be stealing from the countryside, which desperately needs that water.

Secondly, there is an alternative—and that is recycling and cleaning up that water. It has been on the table for a long while. There is now finally a commitment to clean up the Gunnamatta outfall by 2012, which will be a decade after the initial state promise. That will take it to A-grade water. But that water should now be used for recycling and should now be used to displace the fresh water which is being consumed by the pulp mills and power stations of the Latrobe Valley.

The third thing that I want to say is that there is a proposal for a desalination plant and that, whilst I think this could have been avoidable if early action had been taken, it is now necessary. I am not going to stand against it in my area. I do think that the first two billion litres have to be used for topping up the Candowie Reservoir, but beyond that I support the desalination plant but believe the whole thing has been a lost opportunity— (Time expired)