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

Over the past month a passionate debate has been conducted on the pages of the local Southern Gazette, a newspaper in my electorate of Swan. At times the debate has been highly personalised. However, the subject matter is important and that is why I raise it in the House today. The debate has been between the competing interests of the racing industry and the environmental protection of the Swan River. I have previously spoken to the House about the horseracing industry in my electorate. The industry is a large employer of local people and provides entertainment to thousands of people in Perth. The two major racecourse venues in my electorate are Ascot and Belmont. Ascot Racecourse is the headquarters for Perth Racing and hosts the prestigious Perth Cup. Ascot has a nearby racing precinct, or residential and stables zone, with streets designed to allow horses and residents to coexist.

The 1,700 metre Belmont Park Racecourse is a winter track on the riverbank. Thanks to its excellent drainage, Belmont is renowned as arguably one of the best wet-weather tracks in Australia, if not the world. This drainage represents a double-edged sword. Julie Rolling of Rivervale, wrote to the Southern Gazette. She said:

Unbeknown to many residents, close to the Belmont Racecourse there is a large drain hidden away. When the tide is in you can’t see what the drain is expelling. When the tide is out, you can see a large, yellowish, oily, dirty stream coming from the drain, just waiting for the tide to come back in and take it out into the Swan—

that is, the Swan River. Another local, Mr Kevin Bettridge, wrote in a letter of 10 February about how the horse waste from the Ascot stables zone is fed, via a pipe, into the Swan, causing algal blooms. Mr Bettridge criticised the Belmont council for allowing this practice to continue.

Kevin Watkins of Belmont even suggested that the horses be moved out of the town. In response, Ray Mayne of Belmont defended the horseracing industry by saying, ‘It is iconic and a good spin-off for local business.’ Last week the mayor of the city of Belmont took out an advertisement in a local newspaper. She defended the residential and stable zone as ‘a unique feature of our city’ and said, ‘Environmental issues are addressed as part of every council decision.’

These exchanges in the Southern Gazette have highlighted two points. Firstly, as I am sure members would agree, this has been a magnificent exercise in local democracy. Local government has had to respond to concerns of local citizens. Secondly, we must acknowledge that this issue is significant enough to warrant a forum or, in other words, a summit. Most people recognise that an agreement of coexistence is required between the fantastic racing industry and the priceless natural asset, the Swan River.

I have spoken in the past about the racecourse industry. I also spoke just yesterday about the importance of protecting wetlands in my electorate of Swan. A local community forum, involving all stakeholders, would allow us to move forward as a community to protect our environment and our valuable racing industry. We must realise that the debate is not about competing interests of the racing industry and the Swan River system and that they can both prosper with a good management system. I will endeavour to arrange this forum involving the parties concerned and achieve this goal for the local people in the cities of Belmont and Ascot.