Page 2027 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 4 June 2019
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A second risk to the water catchment is the damage caused by feral horses in the catchment. Due to the lack of feral horse control across the New South Wales border, our own ACT catchment is at risk of damage. The hooves of feral horses cause significant damage to sensitive ecological areas and pose a risk to our water quality. I am pleased that Minister Gentleman has been vocal in raising this issue with his New South Wales counterparts. I encourage him to continue this and to continue robust management strategies within our own borders as best we can.
Of course, it is not just feral horses that are causing damage. An emerging issue identified from the ACT government’s monitoring programs is that feral deer population numbers are increasing in the ACT. They are also a risk to the catchment. Like feral horses, feral deer are listed as pests under the Pest Plants and Animals Act, and they need to be controlled in the most humane way possible. Certainly, their impact on waterways—they like to wallow quite close to waterways—is an emerging threat to the very high quality water catchment that we have through the Namadgi range.
Lastly, I will mention some issues regarding urban water—that is, the water that is in our local lakes, ponds and wetlands. Water quality in our lakes remains a problem. The reporting in this week’s Canberra Times that noted the algae and dead animals in Lake Tuggeranong is just one example of a problem that has been going on for too long, affecting the amenity of Canberra as well as the recreation opportunities that align with our waterways.
Some of the water quality problems relate to people’s own behaviour. The University of Canberra researcher who is looking at water quality issues discovered several dead cats in Canberra’s stormwater drains, which he suspects were dumped there. It is also important that people take steps to keep contaminants out of stormwater—things like lawn clippings, detergents, chemicals and soil. These all contribute particularly to the loading of nutrients in our lakes, which exacerbates the problem of blue-green algae.
The Greens are proud to have secured very important improvements in this area through our parliamentary agreement, including $85 million of investment and several new wetlands that have resulted from that.
As well as providing natural environments in the city and cooling the local environment, which is more and more important as our climate warms, the wetlands particularly improve water quality. They do this by filtering the water and reducing nutrients and solids that would otherwise enter other lakes and waterways. They also slow the water down, which is very important for addressing issues of turbidity, which impact on water quality as well. It is a great investment, and those wetlands are providing an important benefit, but clearly we need to continue with our efforts given the ongoing issues of water quality in our lakes and waterways.
My interest in this dates back a long time. Members who have been here since I have will recall some of my comments on this. I was very pleased that we had the inquiry conducted by the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment which was published back in 2012 after I moved a motion in this place. That report has been the
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