Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The recent announcement of the Caring for our Country grants by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts demonstrates the eastern centric focus of the Rudd government and represents a threat to the environment in my electorate of Swan and in Western Australia. Of the $28 million made available for projects, only 10 per cent has been allocated to Western Australia, a state representing one-third of the land mass of the country. This is especially disappointing and Western Australians are doubly unhappy given that Western Australia has many serious environmental issues that fit into the scheme’s three categories: (1) protect, enhance and restore Australia’s biodiversity and natural icons; (2) improve water quality of critical aquatic habitats; and (3) achieve greater uptake of sustainable farm practices.

As the member for Forrest would remind us, the world renowned biodiversity hot spot of the south-west region, one of only 34 biodiversity hot spots in the world, is under threat from urban and periurban encroachment and land degradation problems caused by dryland salinity and soil degradation. Additionally, there is a need to encourage sustainable farm practices in the wheat belt, where increased salinity and high fertiliser usage feeds first into the Avon River and then into the Swan River hydrological system.

It is the Swan River hydrological system that I wish to discuss today. The Swan and Canning Rivers border a significant part of my electorate and the river system is the dominant geographic feature of the Perth metropolitan area. Unfortunately, the river itself is becoming ever more polluted. One form of pollution is the effluent run-off of nitrogen and phosphorus nutrients. These come from a range of sources including agricultural or domestic fertilisers and detergents in soil run-off. The high concentration of nutrients in the river system leads to severe algal blooms which starve the river of oxygen and threaten the health of the marine life below. Another form of pollution is conventional litter.

The South East Regional Centre for Urban Landcare, a local independent natural resource management organisation in Perth, has recently called for pollutant traps to stop some of the waste entering the river system. I support this proposal. The point is fast approaching where people will choose to not swim in the river. This would be a disaster. Having a river clean enough to swim in is one of the great advantages of living in Perth, and an asset that we must protect. Second, the river wall infrastructure has deteriorated through lack of investment, increasing high tides and increasing frequency of severe storm events. The effects of erosion are so obvious that pictures of erosion appear on multiple websites of relevant authorities.

The City of South Perth and the City of Belmont along with 20 other local authorities that border the Swan and Canning Rivers have recently lodged a submission to Infrastructure Australia for funding of $85 million. The cost of restoring the infrastructure is now beyond the capacity of local government and the Swan River Trust. With environmental challenges like the Swan River it is inexcusable that the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts has ignored Western Australia in this latest funding. I personally pledge to pursue this matter until we obtain the necessary funding and resources to restore the Swan and Canning rivers and all their tributaries back to rivers that are able to be used safely by the people of my electorate in Western Australia. If I can achieve my goal the people of Western Australia and I will be doubly happy.