March 2006 Newsletter

It has been a busy time both nationally on water issues and locally as well. In this newsletter we have reports on:

The Howard Government's 10th Anniversary
Visits to Irrigation Areas
Recent speeches on Water Policy to the CIS and Australian Water Summit
Private Sector participation in water? What are the issues?
Community Water Grants in Wentworth
Clean Up Australia Day in Wentworth
Awards for Wentworth teacher and student
A Concert for Point Zero - helping our youth
Speech about the Australian Flag at Bondi
How to unsubscribe or change your details

Howard Government's 10 th anniversary

2 March marked ten years to the day since the Howard Coalition Government was first elected. During that time Australia has enjoyed a period of sustained economic growth, and that prosperity has been shared: lower and middle income families have seen the strongest growth in real incomes.

There are many measures of our nation's achievements in the years of John Howard's leadership and we have set some of them out here, but one worthy of note is that in ten years of Coalition Government real wages increased by 16.8% whereas in thirteen years under Labor they increased by an anaemic 0.3%. For more facts and figures on the Howard years, click here.

The transcript of the Prime Minister's address to the 10th anniversary dinner at Parliament House in Canberra is here.

Water Visits

Since taking up my new responsibility as Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister with responsibility for water policy, I have been immersed in this fascinating and vital issue and within a few weeks I set off to visit some of the irrigation areas in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.

We visited irrigators in Colleambally and Shepparton and then headed north to Goondawindi and Dirranbandi where I met with cotton farmers as well as graziers from across the New South Wales border who were concerned about the way in which the cotton industry was diverting overland flows. We visited Cubbie Station, one of the largest cotton farms on the Queensland side of the border.

I was accompanied by Ken Matthews, the Chairman of the National Water Commission and Peter Corish, an NWC Commissioner and cotton farmer himself.

We saw some of the great progress being taken by irrigators in improving water efficiency. In Colleambally especially the use of new computerised flume gates enables much smarter management of water delivery through their channel system and an improvement in distribution efficiency to 91%. An Australian company called Rubicon is leading the way with this system of Total Channel Control.

In Queensland, I was impressed by the use of subsoil irrigation for cotton which can reduce water useage by as much as 50% and increase yield. There more details about this visit in my speech to the CIS.

I have also visited the Nepean River with Macarthur MP, the Hon. Pat Farmer and seen the damage to that river from a combination of drought and polluting run off from urban development and agriculture.

Water is a national issue and I expect to be spending a great deal more time on the road listening to Australians both in the country and in our big cities as I learn more about our water challenges and how we can best address them.

I will be making some importants about the future direction of our water policy next week, on World Water Day March 22.

Water Speeches

I have given two major speeches on water since my appointment, one to the Centre for Independent Studies and the other to the Australian Water Summit. Both are on my website in the speeches section. The speeches canvassed a number of the key issues including the importance of innovation and technology, the need for greater private sector participation in the water sector and the development of trading.

In the speech earlier this week to the Water Summit, I also addressed the nature of the Commonwealth Government's role in water policy, and how the Commonwealth will become even more engaged in meeting our water challenge in the years ahead.

Private Sector Participation

As I said in my speech to the CIS, there is a need for greater private sector participation in the water industry. The scale of investment required is immense and it will be beyond the ability of Governments to provide it alone. However, there are some difficult questions associated with water and private ownership. How do we ensure that water companies (whether in public or private hands) are properly incentivised to promote the efficient use of water, rather than being encouraged (as they have historically) to sell as much water as they can? I canvassed this issue in the two speeches mentioned above.

In addition I am starting a process of consultation with interested parties on this subject: should there be more private sector participation in the water industry? Are there barriers to that investment? How do we deal with them? How do we ensure that the market encourages participants to promote efficient use of water? Is full market pricing of water sufficient to achieve this? And so on.the issues are numerous. If you have views on this subject and would like to share them with me, please drop me a line (as you know replies to this newsletter come straight to me). We will aim to have some round tables or conferences on this subject later in the year.

Community Water Grants in Wentworth

The Australian Government Water Fund is not just committed to large projects of national significance. There is a small grants programme as well and I am pleased to announce that the Howard Government has approved four Community Water Grants to Woollahra Council.

. $10,010 for the installation of rainwater tanks at the Quarry Street Parks Depot in Paddington;
. $12,628 for the installation of rainwater tanks at St Brigids Library in Woollahra;
. $22,781 for the installation of rainwater tanks at the Lyne Park Public Toilets in Rose Bay and
. $25,852 for the installation of rainwater tanks at the Parsley Bay Toilets in Vaucluse.

More information on the grants and the national programme is here . I encourage all community groups in Wentworth to take part in the next round of Community Water Grants funding. Randwick Council (part of which is within the Wentworth electorate) also received a number of grants under the programme. Waverley Council did not apply for any grants and so received none.

For more information on the Community Water Grants programme and the next Community Water Grants funding round click here www.communitywatergrants.gov.au

Clean Up Australia Day in Wentworth

Clean Up Australia Day, Australia 's largest grass roots community environmental event, took place on 5 March.

Together with 25 volunteers, mostly Wentworth Liberals organised by Mary Lou Jarvis, we helped clean up the Hermitage Foreshore Walk and Nielsen Park in Vaucluse. Together we collected 28 bags of rubbish.

The Chairman and founder of Clean Up Australia, Ian Kiernan AO, made a special visit to our site. See photos here.

Awards for Wentworth teacher and student

Congratulations to the Mathematics Technology Coordinator at Kincoppal Rose Bay, Morris Needleman, who received a National Award for Quality Schooling and Ascham student, Skye Webb, who was the runner up for NSW in the Simpson Prize. I was delighted to attend both presentation ceremonies with the new Education Minister, Julie Bishop, at Parliament House in Canberra. See a photo of the presentation here.

Morris has revolutionised the way maths is taught at the school, integrating technology to make it relevant, interesting and exciting for students.

This Simpson Prize is a competition celebrating the ANZACS. Students submitted essays or audio-visual presentations which highlighted characteristics of the ANZAC spirit and how the traditions of ANZAC impact upon Australian life today.

Point Zero fundraiser

As Patron of Point Zero Youth Services, I encourage you to attend a concert featuring world renowned pianist, Simon Tedeschi , playing Rhapsody in Blue and a young vocalist, Lauren Cohen.

The concert is from 5-7pm on Sunday 26 March at the Sir John Clancy Auditorium at UNSW. Tickets are $35 for adults and $25 for concessions and can be bought through Point Zero on 9300-0099 or email Waverley Councillor, Sally Betts, at sallybetts@hotmail.com

Funds will go to support Point Zero services such as the Youth Outreach Van, the Safe Partying Program and the Community, Adolescent and Parent Program.

Speech in Parliament on the Australian flag

Following pressure from Liberal Waverley Councillor, Joy Clayton , Waverley Council back flipped and voted to fly the Australian flag from our iconic Bondi Pavilion.

I gave a speech in Parliament on 28 February applauding Joy and her Liberal colleagues. It was their tenacity and the good sense of the Waverley community that ensured the decision by Waverley's Labor and Green councillors not to fly the flag at Bondi was reversed.

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