Daniel Mulino (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The last election was about many things, but one of the issues that was absolutely front and centre across the board, across our country, was the environment. We're discussing climate change here today, which is incredibly important, but another aspect of the environment that is very important is the health of our rivers and waterways.

I would like to pay tribute today to the many volunteers and community organisations that do so much to protect the parks, wetlands, rivers and waterways of Fraser. I'll single out two, but there are many such organisations throughout my electorate. I'll single out two because I've been with them over the last few weeks in river lands and parkways, protecting our natural environment. The first is the Friends of Kororoit Creek. On National Tree Day they organised a tree planting in which we planted over 2,000 trees at the Bug Rug, a local nature reserve just off Kororoit Creek. I believe that a very small proportion, but hopefully a positive proportion, of the trees that I planted may survive the year and that I'll be able to visit them next year.

The Friends of the Maribyrnong Valley is another group that has been around for many years, helping to protect one of the most complex and fragile waterways in Victoria. They organised a tour recently of this very important environment, showing the importance of local fauna and flora.

I want to acknowledge the incredible work of all of these groups, and many others, in Fraser. Our government stands to back them up.