Lake Eyre Basin
Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (16:03): I rise to support, with my colleagues, this motion that has come to us from the other house, namely:
That this house—
a) recognises the significance of Lake Eyre to South Australia's Aboriginal, pastoral and tourism communities and its dependence on water flows from the Cooper Creek, Diamantina and Georgina rivers;
b) expresses concern that the Queensland Government has continued to refuse to consult with South Australia and other affected States regarding their plans to remove the legislative environmental protections of the Lake Eyre Basin rivers;
c) calls on the Queensland Government to maintain the current quantity and quality of water flows from the Lake Eyre Basin rivers into South Australia's rivers flood plains and wetlands in the Lake Eyre Basin; and
d) calls on the Queensland Government to formally consult with South Australia as a co-signatory to the Lake Eyre Basin Intergovernmental Agreement, regarding any proposal which has the potential to impact flows into our State.
This is an exceptionally important issue to the electorate of Stuart, and I would say to the environment of our state as a whole. I would like to think that this house would know that the entire Lake Eyre Basin almost is in the electorate of Stuart. There is a small fraction of it near Coober Pedy that is actually in the electorate of Giles, but certainly all of the rivers that flow into Lake Eyre within South Australia and all of Lake Eyre are in the electorate of Stuart.
As the motion mentions, this is an important environmental issue. This is an important cultural issue, both with regard to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. It is an important business issue and tourism issue. It is also very important to our cattle grazing industry. So, there are a lot of stakeholders, all of whom I hold to be extremely important people and extremely important players in this issue. I guess, first and foremost, it is an environmental issue because all of the people who are connected to this issue, their connection is through this very important and very special inland river system. It is not at all common in the world that you have a river system that flows inland, as opposed to out to sea. It is not the norm. It is extremely special and it needs to be looked after.
This is not a new issue that has come to us. I am grateful that this motion has come to this house, but back in February of this year I took exactly the same stand as this, very publicly, when I first became aware that the Queensland government was considering these moves. At that point in time, I was not aware that my predecessor, the Hon. Graham Gunn, back in 2009, had actually moved quite a similar motion in this house. That motion from 2009 was:
That this House calls on the Queensland government not to permit further irrigation from the Cooper Creek or allow existing water licences to be activated and that this motion be sent to the Speaker of the Queensland Legislative Assembly by the Speaker of the House of Assembly.
That motion was passed. Back in 2009, the Hon. Graham Gunn moved that motion and I am sure that today the motion from the government on the same topic will be passed as well. So, this is not a new issue and it is disappointing that the Queensland government—and it is important to point out, the Queensland Labor government and the Queensland Liberal government—is not fulfilling its responsibilities in this regard.
There is no spare water in the Lake Eyre Basin. As I said before, these rivers do not flow out to sea. There is no surplus water which goes out to sea. By that, I do not mean to say that any water that flows out to sea from the river is surplus because some of it does very important environmental work, and certainly if there is a surplus it also flows out to sea, but there is no surplus water flowing inland towards Lake Eyre, whether it reaches Lake Eyre or not.
Every single litre provides an environmental benefit to our state, whether the water reaches Lake Eyre or not. Certainly, if it reaches Lake Eyre it has a huge impact with regard to how much of the lake is covered, how high the water level rises, how many fish can breed, how many microorganisms can breed and how many birds can migrate to Lake Eyre to breed. Every little bit of life form that operates around Lake Eyre when the lake floods is benefited by a greater flood, but even if the water does not get to Lake Eyre, every 100 metres that the water flows down towards Lake Eyre makes a huge difference.
For tens of thousands of years Aboriginal people have known this very well, living in this inland river system, well upstream from Lake Eyre. They knew that every 100 metres, wherever the flood got to, was going to be a gigantic opportunity and every 100 metres that it flows further was a gigantic improvement, not only for the environment but for their life for the next few weeks, months or years, depending on where it got to and which significant waterholes it would reach.
None of that has changed, that importance has not changed, has not diminished at all; it is still the case. Typically, these inland rivers (two rivers and one creek, as they are named) are usually dry, other than some of the waterholes that hold water all the time. So, their only opportunity to fill up and to thrive from water comes from flows down (typically) from Queensland and most of it around inland of the Great Dividing Range near Longreach. It rains occasionally in these areas but the flooding does not occur from local rain. The flooding comes from inland Queensland rain that flows down into this area. It is water that has come a long way to do the environment the benefit that it does.
By definition, because they are typically dry creek and river beds, the only time that you could harvest water from them is the only time that the water is doing its environmental benefit, and cultural, tourism and grazing benefit and all those other sorts of things. You cannot unfortunately identify a time of surplus water and say we have extra, so we will harvest now for the benefit of mining or irrigation or some other opportunity. It just does not work.
The other very important thing that I would like this house and those further afield, particularly in Queensland, to understand is that if water is harvested and if it is used for mining or irrigation, if it works in a small way, it will work in a large way because generally there is a fairly linear demand for water for those sorts of industries. The more you have, the more you can use it and the more you can benefit. I understand there would be significant economic benefits, but to my mind they are miniscule compared to the cost of taking this water.
Any argument that says it is only a tiny amount of water, that it will not make a big difference, number one, I see to be incorrect but, number two, to be an attempt at just a foot in the door because then if it is done and it is successful, then the next argument will be that we just want a little bit more and then just a little bit more and then just a little more and on and on to the point where it will not just be a small amount of water. For me, every single litre counts. Even for those people who think that perhaps a small amount might be okay, incorrectly, this would be the foot in the door and it means that even their view will lead to much more significant difficulties down the track.
This is not a Liberal versus Labor issue. This is not a South Australia versus Queensland issue. This is essentially an upstream versus downstream issue. I was at the National Lake Eyre Basin Conference that was held a few months ago in September in Port Augusta. Port Augusta was very pleased to host that conference. There were people from all walks of life. A few hundred people attended that conference and you could look around the room and, in a way in which we all do when we enter a room, you could see that there were all sorts of people there. I know there were people there from all over Australia. There were Western Australians, those from the ACT, not to mention the locals from South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and the Northern Territory much closer to the Lake Eyre Basin.
There were people from all over Australia, from all walks of life—men, women, young, old, Aboriginal, non-Aboriginal, other cultures, scientists, business people, tourism operators, government staff members, members of parliament, minister Hunter was there. There was a whole range of people there. The people who attended that conference were united in their objection to what Queensland is considering doing. They were united in their objection, so much so that a petition was put forward. There was a motion to develop a petition at that conference that was unanimously supported. I do not know the number of signatures but there were hundreds of people at the conference and I am sure there were hundreds of signatures on the petition too.
For me, there is no politics in this. This is not Liberal versus Labor. It is not South Australia versus Queensland. It is about the people who further upstream would like to harvest the water versus the people downstream (Queenslanders included) who do not want the water to be harvested because they recognise how incredibly important this water is. I commend the government for moving this motion. I wholeheartedly join the opposition in supporting this motion. I thank both the minister and the shadow minister for their work together in this endeavour and I implore the house to support it because it is exceptionally important for an incredibly wide range of people and our environment. It is a pivotal issue to the electorate of Stuart and it is a critical issue to our state.
Motion carried.
Comment