WATER INFRASTRUCTURE —
BUNBURY
691. Mr
D.T. PUNCH to the Minister for Water:
I refer to the McGowan Labor
government's efforts to support local jobs and drive economic activity
as the state recovers from the impacts of COVID-19. Can the minister outline in
detail to the house how this government's significant investment in water infrastructure in Bunbury supports not
only the local community, but also local jobs and local businesses, and
how this investment will help address the impacts of climate change on the
south west of our state?
Mr D.J.
KELLY replied:
I thank the member for the question
and, in particular, for his tireless advocacy on behalf of the people of
Bunbury. The week before last, it was a pleasure to be there to announce these
two projects. I could tell from the reception the member received in his
electorate that he is extremely well regarded.
Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure
to go to Bunbury with the member to, firstly, open a new water treatment plant in Bunbury. It is a $15 million water treatment
plant, and building it created 200 local jobs. The project was overseen
by Aqwest. I congratulate it for the professional way in which the project was
delivered. I note that Aqwest did a lot of
work to engage the local Noongar community in the construction of that water
treatment plant. It will officially be named the Ngoora Moolinap water
treatment plant in recognition of the deep connection that the Aboriginal
community has with water in the landscape. The name actually means ''water
sitting in a well in a swampy place'', which is an appropriate name for
a water treatment plant. That treatment plant is necessary because Bunbury is serviced by a number of bores that are located by
the coast. With the declining watertable and rising sea level due to climate change, those bores are at an increasing
risk of salt water intrusion. Aqwest has long sought funding to relocate
its bores further inland so that it can access the groundwater that is needed
without the threat of salt water intrusion.
In
the first budget after we came to office, we allocated $15 million for that
project. It was a project that the previous Liberal–National
government refused to fund. I wonder whether it was because so many of their
members did not believe in the impacts of climate change. That was our first
project in Bunbury. We opened that water treatment plant and it was very well
received.
The second project was an
announcement under the WA recovery plan for a $11.9 million water resource
recovery scheme. Basically, that is a water recycling scheme to provide
recycled water for the public open space of Bunbury. Again, with the impacts of climate change, groundwater is precious.
Currently, a lot of the public open space is kept green using scheme
water. This water recycling scheme will see treated wastewater from the Bunbury
wastewater treatment plant in Dalyellup, which is owned by the Water
Corporation, provided to the City of Bunbury and other users for public open
space. The water re-use scheme project will be operated by Aqwest. The $11.9 million
project will create approximately 200 jobs in construction. This project is
needed because of the shortage of groundwater in Bunbury due to the impacts of
climate change.
Members on this side of the house
are prepared to spend the money to support communities in the south west, in
this case with vital water infrastructure. The government has spent over $20 million
on that. People will recall that we are also
building a pipeline from Albany to Denmark at a cost of $25 million. This
expenditure and these projects were not delivered under the previous
government. We are delivering them, first, because we want to support those
communities; and, secondly, because we recognise that climate change is impacting
water in the south west in a significant
way. The previous government would not let the relevant departments even use
the term ''climate change''
because it simply did not believe in the science. Too many members of the
Liberal and National Parties still do not accept the science of climate change.
We do accept the science on this side of the house, and we are prepared to
spend the money to support communities in the south west that are affected by
climate change.
The SPEAKER: That is the end
of question time.