Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Forde electorate is fortunate to have hardworking councillors in both the Logan City and Gold Coast councils. Shortly, the Logan City Council will step up their efforts to protect the waterways of Logan through the Logan Waterways Summit. The City of Logan is dominated by the catchment and tributaries of the Logan and Albert rivers. Covering over 4,000 square kilometres, the catchments drain into Southern Moreton Bay. The Logan River is one of four rivers in the Forde Electorate and the longest stretching back to the Great Dividing Range. The Logan River is joined by the Albert River at Carbrook, before flowing into the RAMSAR listed Southern Moreton Bay. The catchment is affected by a variety of land uses, from the rural areas of North Maclean and Chambers Flat to the urban areas of Waterford, Bethania and Loganholme, the mangrove forests of Southern Moreton Bay and the aquaculture farms near the river mouth. This wonderful river system has suffered from this development over the past 20 or 30 years. The 2010 Ecosystem Health Report Card showed the Albert and Logan rivers as two of the worst in South-East Queensland, with the Logan River remaining in the D category and Albert River dropping from an A- to B-. After testing 16 sites in the Logan River catchment, most of the area failed to meet ecosystem goals set out by the study. Out of the 19 freshwater catchments in South-East Queensland, only four scored lower than the Logan River, which has not scored higher than a D for four years. Sites stretching from Waterford to Moreton Bay completely failed to meet health standards. This is a sad indictment of the management of our natural heritage. I grew up in this area and as a child I used to swim in the Logan River. It is sad to realise that my boys do not have that opportunity.

After the release of this report, residents and government officials agreed that this must be rectified to ensure that future generations can enjoy the waterways. The main issue for the Logan and Albert waterways is fine sediment, or suspended sediment, which comes predominantly from urban and industrial areas, agricultural activities such as grazing, and the degrad­ation of the river banks through poor land-clearing practices. This sediment flows into the creeks that feed into these rivers.

The Logan and Albert Conservation Association believe that a large contributor to the poor results were the high nutrient and sediment levels being produced. The Logan-Albert Rivers Catchment Association bel­ieves that development and rural and urban refuse are three main problems that demand immediate attention. The Logan City Council is currently taking action and delivering its Gross Pollutant Trap Cleaning Program to the benefit of both rivers. Councillor Ray Hackwood said:

Council is committed to assisting with the protection of our natural waterways and our GPT cleaning program is crucial to help prevent unnecessary and damaging pollutants travelling into our rivers and Moreton Bay.

Councillor Lisa Bradley said:

... during each round of cleaning more than 500 tonnes of damaging pollutants were prevented from entering Logan's waterways.

The Logan City Council is also being very proactive in its work to clean up the Logan and Albert rivers by holding its inaugural Logan Waterways Summit in July. The overall aim of the Logan Waterways Summit is to provide a forum for engagement, discussion and collaboration, where ideas and solutions can be developed to improve the health and resilience of the Logan and Albert rivers catchment and their various tributaries.

It is disappointing to note in this time of a long and complex debate about a carbon tax that the on-the-ground, practical environ­mental issues that we face in the electorate of Forde with respect to our rivers are not even touched on. The carbon tax will impact greatly on people's lives but it will do nothing to help deal with these practical on-the-ground measures that go directly to the heart of improving our natural environment for future generations in our community. It is about time that we stopped looking to a tax as a solution and instead looked at the practical, on-the-ground measures that will help future generations. (Time expired)