Thursday, 1 September 2022

Ministers statements: waterway management

Ms SHING (Eastern Victoria—Minister for Water, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Equality) (12:35): I want to talk today about litter. We know that 95 per cent of the litter that is dropped on our streets ends up in our waterways, and I want to talk today as Minister for Water about a range of initiatives that are delivering better insight into the way in which litter moves throughout our system and the way in which it causes damage to flora, to fauna and indeed to the quality of water across the state. From microplastics right through to bottles and cans, there are a range of initiatives that are being rolled out to make sure that we are aware of the impact of litter on our environments.

I know that my predecessor, Lisa Neville in the other place, was an absolute champion in particular for the Barwon and Bellarine regions and for healthy waterways in her electorate, so last week in Geelong it was an absolute pleasure to join the candidate for Bellarine, the extraordinary Alison Marchant, who has a proud track record of working to secure better environmental outcomes, including as they relate to the ban on unconventional fracking, to talk about an innovative citizen science project, the Litter Trackers project, which is part of the Burbs to the Bay initiative.

What we did on Friday was gather with a range of students from Northern Bay College, St Joseph’s Flexible Learning Centre, St Therese Catholic Primary School and North Geelong Secondary College—happy birthday indeed to Timo from grade 5, who joined us—to throw bottles into the Barwon fitted with GPS devices. These bottles will track the movement of litter through our waterways, and once they are retrieved they will provide some really wonderful information about how litter is moving through those waterways and how it is impacting upon surrounding areas. It is part of a $17 million investment in improving iconic waterways, including through the rivers of the Barwon action plan. Congratulations to everyone, including Barwon Water.