Page 1130 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 30 March 2011
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Mr Stanhope: All right, yes.
Mrs Dunne: We will give you leave to speak again, Jon.
MR STANHOPE (Ginninderra—Chief Minister, Minister for Transport, Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, Minister for Business and Economic Development, Minister for Land and Property Services, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs and Minister for the Arts and Heritage) (6.04): I am grateful for Mrs Dunne’s offer. I will speak to the amendment, Mr Assistant Speaker. Actually, the government accepts the wisdom of the need for us to better understand some of the impacts on our lakes, most specifically in this instance Lake Burley Griffin.
As members have acknowledged and as Mrs Dunne has just indicated, her amendment is driven very much by the obvious fact that the ACT government does not administer Lake Burley Griffin. Indeed, there are a number of jurisdictions, including of course Queanbeyan with the sewage treatment plant immediately upstream of Lake Burley Griffin on the Molonglo River. It creates complexity.
Indeed, the ACT government, in considering this motion, was affected by the very same consideration that Mrs Dunne has drawn attention to. I anticipate the amendments that I do propose to move. At one level, they are also designed to deal to some extent with the same issues—not perhaps as bluntly as Mrs Dunne has—and are influenced by the same consideration.
I believe it is appropriate we recognise that there are overlapping jurisdictions. Indeed, the ACT government is not responsible for Lake Burley Griffin—for its management. Indeed, whilst we work cooperatively with the NCA in relation to joint management and whilst ACT government agencies such as the Environment Protection Authority are utilised by the NCA in determining water quality, we do also believe that some of those issues need to be taken into account.
Having said that, however, I do not think anything Mr Rattenbury has said today can be gainsaid, criticised or contradicted. Everything he said I think is reasonable. It is based on our own experience. It is based on concerns that I believe we all have about the quality of water in Lake Burley Griffin and, indeed, in our other lakes. It may very well be that through an investigation and the gathering of an evidence base—indeed, through generating contact between the respective jurisdictions—that will assist us in better management.
These are difficult issues. Many of the issues we have faced in recent times are a direct result of major flood incidents. But then again, those major flood instances have shown and have caused overflow issues not just at the Queanbeyan sewage works, I have to say. In recent times—I believe in 2010—there was an overflow from the Actew-managed Fyshwick sewage treatment plant. So it is not just Queanbeyan. Indeed, the Actew Fyshwick plant has also suffered an overflow event, which obviously raises questions about its capacity and the need for us to deal with that.
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