Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to begin by expressing the concerns of my electorate for all those caught up in the Victorian fires, and for those still fighting them. I am proud of the contribution of our Murray electorate volunteers and professionals in helping our neighbours and donating support. I also want to acknowledge my sister Vicki and her family at Limestone, near Yea. They have been under fire attack since the weekend, and strong winds today will make it particularly dangerous for them and their neighbours.

It was a miracle that the biggest red gum forest in the world, the great Barmah-Millewa Forest, did not go up in flames on those terrible days last weekend. The great Barmah-Millewa Forest, which is strung along the Murray River, contains RAMSAR listed wetlands and is laced with small streams and grassy plains. The forest is an international natural treasure.

To preserve the forest, the coalition allocated 500 gigalitres of environmental flow to be let into the forest through regulators at the natural times of high Murray River flow in the spring. The timing of the release of this water is critical to the successful breeding events of birds and fish and the regeneration of the flora. Release of water at other times can do great damage.

The locals who love and have cared for this forest for generations and the Bangarang elders are now deeply concerned that three weeks ago, at the height of the summer’s heat, some individuals illegally tampered with the regulators, smashing the locks and flooding about 850 megalitres into the forest. This was no accident. The four regulators—the Gulf, the Big Woodcutter, the Boals Deadwood Swamp and the Pump Paddock—were opened over a weekend and continued to pour water into the forest through to the following Thursday.

This reckless criminal act has caused a water spill in the forest 30 kilometres long and five kilometres wide. Sixty square kilometres are affected. This is a black water event. The shallow water in the intense heat quickly becomes toxic, killing all. Already water birds have been attempting to breed with no hope of fledgling offspring surviving, given we are still in the height of summer and the water will be gone in less than a week. Only about 10 per cent of the birds in the major bird breeding event in 2006 survived when authorities cut the water off too soon and delivered it too late.

There is plenty of speculation about who committed this crime. Some suggest pig shooters, others suggest duck shooters and others think the DSE might have done it in an effort to create a wet firebreak, given their cold burns and action to reduce fuel loads in the forest have been so ineffectual and damaging that locals have had to release cattle into the forest to reduce the risk of fire in these tinder-dry conditions. I call on the DSE to undertake a thorough, public and transparent investigation of this illegal flooding. It is simply not good enough to keep it as their best-kept secret. We need answers and we need action.