Tuesday, 16 August 2022

Polwarth electorate waterways

Mr RIORDAN (Polwarth) (12:56): I draw the house’s attention today to a series of approaches to my office about the state of our waterways and estuaries flowing out past the Great Ocean Road and into the sea, mainly from the Otway catchments. I bring to attention firstly the Curdies River community, and that takes in Peterborough, Timboon, Cobden and the Heytesbury farming district. The community has put petitions to the Parliament both electronically and manually from well over 1000 people—and that is from a very small community—who are saying, ‘We want a well-funded remediation plan to help with the blue-green algae and the terrible state of the estuary of the Curdies River down at Peterborough’. Likewise, the Anglesea community has been fighting for a long time to get some sense from the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning about the catchment behind the now closed Alcoa coal plant. They want to know that the government is putting real resources into addressing the acid sulphate soils that have now made the beautiful Anglesea estuary, which is used for canoeing, fishing and other pastimes, so sterile that there is no fish life and it is affecting birds and other microorganisms in the catchment. These are important to the local environment. They are important to the local community. These waterways need real investment and not more talk.