Page 2598 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 11 August 2015
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Auditor-General’s Act, pursuant to subsection 17(6)—Auditor-General’s Report No 3/2015—Restoration of the Lower Cotter Catchment—Government response.
I ask leave to make a statement in relation to the paper.
Leave granted.
MR RATTENBURY: I am pleased to present the government response to the Auditor-General’s performance audit report No 3 of 2015, which reviewed the effectiveness of management strategies employed by the ACT government and Icon Water in the lower Cotter catchment.
We are, indeed, fortunate that those who recommended a site for our national capital had front of mind the requirement for a clean, reliable water supply. The upper Cotter River catchment, which forms the western spine of the territory, collects rainfall and melting snow from our highest peaks, protected from contamination by the Namadgi national park. As the Cotter River winds its way north out of the park, it enters the lower reaches of its catchment. This part of the lower Cotter catchment is made up of 6,000 hectares of land that has undergone considerable change since the early 1900s, when it was cleared for agriculture and later planted to pines as part of the territory’s commercial softwood plantation.
The 2003 bushfires completely destroyed the plantations of the lower Cotter catchment. The ACT government, in partnership with the community, has since invested heavily in rehabilitation, the central objective being maximising the value of the catchment from a water quality point of view. The decision to reactivate and enlarge the Cotter Dam added further impetus to stabilise the soils, establish vegetation cover and minimise human-induced impacts on water quality within the lower Cotter catchment.
The Auditor-General’s report notes:
Since the 2003 fires, the natural regeneration of the vegetation cover and the management efforts and resources expended by Icon Water, the Territory and Municipal Services Directorate and the Environment Protection Authority, have been effective in steadily improving water quality and reducing turbidity and sedimentation.
However, the report goes on to note that considerable amounts of sediment are mobilised into the Cotter River after heavy rainfall and some of the erosion and sediment control structures in the lower Cotter catchment are in need of repair or replacement. Furthermore, the report notes the need to finalise a plan of management, improve management and coordination arrangements, and ensure the fire trail network available to land managers strikes the right balance between management access and minimisation of sediment run-off.
The government agrees with every one of the report’s 12 recommendations. It considers the report a blueprint for addressing some difficult issues needed to ensure this important part of our water catchment is able to yield water of consistently good quality.
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