Page 3813 - Week 11 - Thursday, 24 November 2022
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I want that on the Hansard!—sports facilities, community spaces and a college. It is a place where people gather with parks and barbecue areas, playgrounds and skate parks, all the amenities you would hope for in an outdoor hub for community activity.
For us Tuggeranonites, pride in our lake goes hand in hand with its unfortunate—and I believe preventable—reputation of the notorious blue-green algae. Algal blooms have kept our lake closed from recreational swimming for nearly 100 days each year. In 2019, the ACT state of the environment report assessed the recreational water quality of our lakes and rivers across Canberra as poor. Even by these standards, Lake Tuggeranong was one of the worst affected, with our lake closed for the majority of the recreational swimming season.
I do not think we are resting on our laurels by any means. During the last ACT election I was proud to run with my ACT Greens colleagues on a platform where we made an ambitious commitment to invest $30 million into the ACT Healthy Waterways Program. Over the past two years my colleague Mr Rattenbury, as the Minister for Water, has secured a total of $20.5 million of that funding the Greens committed to, to improve our waterways.
As much as I pride myself on consistently agitating to make sure Tuggeranong is not forgotten about, I think the ACT Healthy Waterways Package has poured a lot of TLC into Tuggeranong. So far we have seen 19 new water quality assets, eight of which were in Tuggeranong. This is completed by a research program in partnership with the University of Canberra which has given us some really important specialised and update information about the lake. The floating wetlands, which were installed early in the term, provided some respite to the lake as well as joy for those of us who like to walk around it and point out our shiny new water quality assets.
By the middle of 2023, we will add an additional 11 new water assets, expand the activities of the Leaf Collective, extend the University of Canberra’s research contract into the Lake Tuggeranong catchment and more. The Healthy Waterways Package is a testament to how the Greens and government go above and beyond to secure outcomes for our community and our environment. I will continue to work closely with Minister Rattenbury on this investment.
I also thank my colleague Ms Lawder for her care and concern for the lake too, demonstrated almost exactly a year ago, through her resolution passed on Thursday 25 November, calling on the government to provide better amenities around the lake. I was very pleased to support this resolution. I spoke on similar matters to do with the lake health and organic matter at that time too.
So far in this term of government, the government has committed to a $4.75 million investment to improve the Lake Tuggeranong foreshore precinct. The upgrade process engaged our community to make sure our money was going to the right paths, places to sit, picnic areas and play equipment—very welcome investment indeed. But, as I mentioned earlier, my office also did our due diligence with our community consultation. After conducting a survey on Lake Tuggeranong and receiving more than 420 responses, we presented this listening report to the Ministers for Water and Transport Canberra and City Services respectively and we fought to make sure that this feedback was taken on board.
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