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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-11-12 Daily Xml
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NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (WATER HARVESTING) AMENDMENT BILL

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 24 September 2008. Page 175.)

The Hon. B.V. FINNIGAN (00:12): This is the third bill, of course, that we have been dealing with tonight introduced by the Hon. Robert Brokenshire. My colleagues have spoken on the other two bills. In relation to this bill, the Natural Resources Management Council does not have the authority to direct other organisations to provide information about their water harvesting projects.

In any event, measures are already in place to coordinate and report on water harvesting projects including the coordination of stormwater policy through the Office for Water Security, the identification of stormwater management projects through stormwater management plans developed by local councils and the board of the Stormwater Management Authority. Minutes of board meetings are publicly available on the internet.

Statements that suggest that some stormwater projects are dressed up as stormwater harvesting projects imply that current reporting attempts to hide the true nature of projects. However, the opposite is true. Reporting attempts to identify that stormwater management often has multiple outcomes, including flood mitigation and environmental flows, in addition to water harvesting for use. All these aspects should be considered to ensure that projects provide an overall benefit to the community. The government opposes this bill, as we do not see that it is necessary.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (00:13): I thank my colleague for his comments on the bill. In closing, this is the simplest of the three bills and this one, frankly, is really primarily about an accountability measure. Family First have discovered, since introducing our bill, via an FOI—and this is interesting, I believe—that the Stormwater Management Authority holds absolutely nothing on costing stormwater harvesting. This goes to show that the SMA is actually about mitigation and not about harvesting, contrary to what was, I think, said in earlier debate.

The accountability measure in this bill requires the NRM council to report on stormwater harvesting initiatives, which I see as basic when we have a new levy structure through the NRM that people who are hurting out there are paying. They do have some goodwill with this levy as against some of the other new levies, but people actually want to see some transparency and they want to see some reports on stormwater harvesting initiatives. I would love to see this bill passed. We are all concerned to know not only whether stormwater harvesting is happening but also how much is being invested in it. I do not know whether other members have had more success, but we have tried everywhere to get some actual figures and accountability on this but have not succeeded.

The government has given mixed messages from the Treasurer and the responsible minister on whether it believes in stormwater harvesting. By 2010, when we get into the election campaign, I would like to hear the government saying that it has been investing in this area, but we need to see where it is investing now and how much it is investing.

The trend line of federal Labor policy on stormwater harvesting is not really encouraging either. My recollection is that, at the last federal election, the coalition offered more for stormwater harvesting and that, at this point, the government's $13.9 billion national Water for the Future Plan includes only $250 million in rainwater and greywater initiatives as part of the 'using water wisely' strategy, which potentially involves a host of things, including stormwater harvesting.

This bill will enable the NRM Council to impartially analyse (and this is what I am after—an impartial analysis) and report on what stormwater harvesting and ASR is occurring so that we do not have to rely upon whichever government is in power to drip feed and spin to us whether it is or is not funding stormwater harvesting. Again, I refer honourable members to my previous speeches on this bill and its sister bills, and I am happy to put forward more data and argument if they need it.

In making this contribution on the third bill, I conclude by acknowledging the good research work of John Fargher, who will soon graduate from Adelaide University. He has been working with us on a lot of this as well. We forget too readily that, when the jacarandas flower, our teenagers and young adults are busy studying to try to make the most of their potential. I know that other colleagues also have them, but these internship programs through Clem MacIntyre are of great assistance, particularly to Independents on the crossbenches. Combined with the other work we have done, I want to put on the Hansard record that Mr Fargher has been of great assistance to us. I ask colleagues to have a close look at this bill before the committee stage.

Bill read a second time.

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