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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-04-09 Daily Xml
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CULLEN, PROF. P.

Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. M. Parnell:

That the Legislative Council notes with sadness the recent passing of Professor Peter Cullen and acknowledges the great contribution he made to South Australia.

(Continued from 2 April 2008. Page 2220.)

The Hon. C.V. SCHAEFER (17:10): I rise on behalf of the Liberal Party to support the motion of the Hon. Mark Parnell noting with sadness the recent passing of Professor Peter Cullen and acknowledging his great contribution to South Australia and, may I add, to Australia generally.

The achievements of Peter Cullen are noteworthy, and I realise that the Hon. Mr Parnell has noted them. He was a founding member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, and he won the Prime Minister's Prize for Environmentalist of the Year in 2001 for his work on the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality. He graduated in Agricultural Science from the University of Melbourne, and he is noted as almost singlehandedly significantly influencing former prime minister Howard and his government to see the big issues on water management.

He was passionate about alerting Australians about the crisis facing the country's river system. He was president of the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies from 1998 through to 2001, and he was founding chief executive of the Cooperative Research Centre for Fresh Water Ecology at the University of Canberra. He was a visiting fellow at CSIRO Land and Water and director of Land and Water Australia from 2002.

He was awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2004 for services to fresh water ecology, and the Naumann-Thienemann Medal of the International Limnology Society for 2004 'for his exemplary scientific leadership'. He was also a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Scientists and Engineering, and he was a member of the International Water Academy and the International Ecology Institute. His website states that he had worked in the field of natural resource management for over 35 years.

As I previously said, he was a graduate in agricultural science from the University of Melbourne, and his major professional work areas were nutrient dynamics, eutrophication, lake ecology and environmental flows. He was a member of the International Water Academy and a director of both Land and Water Australia and Landcare Australia.

He was a professor emeritus of the University of Canberra, where he was dean of applied science. He was a member of the Community Advisory Committee of the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council, and a chair of the Scientific Advisory Panel for the Lake Eyre Basin Ministerial Forum.

He was known internationally and was responsible for developing the Blueprint for a Living Continent via the Wentworth group. But perhaps his greatest skill was his ability to bridge the gap between science and landholders. He came from country New South Wales, and he never ever lost his ability to speak with landholders and to inform them.

In his contribution on the death of Professor Cullen, Tim Flannery made a number of comments, some of which the Hon. Mr Parnell has already quoted. However, I think they are worth repeating. Mr Flannery said: Peter Cullen insisted that Australia's water problem was basically a moral one. He coined two water commandments that he believed Australians needed to live by to solve the country's water crisis: do not covet thy neighbour's water; and do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

As our water crisis deepens, I think it would pay us all to think in those terms. Flannery goes on to say:

...Cullen filled to capacity a career in ecology as a scientist and adviser to governments. [He was] a member of both the National Water Commission and the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, he was someone to whom prime ministers looked for leadership...the man who listened patiently and gave back sensibly at rural forums; the professional colleague who never failed to return a phone call or an email.

He is quoted as saying, after John Howard's announcement of the comprehensive plan, which was to be required to deal with the country's water crisis, the following:

With $10 billion to invest...we have great opportunities to build irrigation communities that are economically, environmentally and socially sustainable. Is this possible in a Western democracy, or will we spend this money pandering to special interests?

Again, as we face what I believe is one of the great ecological, environmental and economic crises that Australia has ever seen, the words of Cullen should be carefully remembered.

I met Peter Cullen on perhaps half a dozen occasions, always when he was a keynote speaker at a conference or meeting that I attended. The most recent was when he was a guest speaker at our Natural Resource Management Standing Committee in this parliament, I think just prior to Christmas, or it may have been just after. I do not pretend to have known the man well, but I always found him disarmingly humble and able to speak with anyone to answer any question in non-scientific language so that everyone understood what he was talking about.

He was passionate about the environmental and ecological future of Australia, and he was brave enough to put forward some controversial plans for the recovery of our national water crisis. Let us hope that, in his passing, the efforts that he has made for South Australia and for Australia are not wasted or forgotten. I support the motion on behalf the Liberal Party.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. I.K. Hunter.

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