Interview with Mark Robinson, Gold Central Victoria

Minister, good morning. MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: G’day, Robbo. Good to be with you.

MARK ROBINSON: Thank you. Hey, it’s only 123-odd years or something since they were built, so I guess it’s not before time that we get them tarted up a bit. MURRAY WATT: No, that’s right, Robbo.

And probably as your listeners realise, Coliban Water’s rural water supply network dates back to the 1870s, and I got to see some the old water channels for myself yesterday just behind the airport at Bendigo, and let’s just say they’re not in a great state. And the problem is at the moment that because a lot of the water in the area is transported through those open channels rather than sort of closed pipes, we see about 80 per cent of the water that comes through them lost to the system through evaporation or leakage or seeping, that kind of thing.

And these days, we’ve got to make sure that we use every drop of water that we’ve got, especially as we see the climate drying. So this investment is really about making sure that the Bendigo region, not just the town of Bendigo but the Bendigo region as a whole, has much more reliable and sustainable water supply into the future. But also, it’s got a national perspective as well, because of course Bendigo and the region feeds into the Murray-Darling Basin, and the water savings that will generate from this means that we’ll be able to put what’s known as 4.5 gigalitres, or 4.5 billion litres of water, back into the Murray-Darling Basin system.

And that works out to about eight to nine Sydney Harbours worth of water will go back into the Murray-Darling Basin, and that’s terrific for the environment generally, and agriculture as well. MARK ROBINSON: You mentioned nationally there – what’s going on with the channels, et cetera here, would that be replicated in other areas of Australia? Is it something that we need to do on a very broad basis?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, potentially, Robbo. I mean, our government is very committed to restoring the health of the Murray-Darling Basin. It is our most important water system right across the country.

And obviously, there's a very large number of Australians who rely on that water system stretching all the way from Queensland right down to South Australia and, of course, through Victoria. You know, we've got the agriculture sector very reliant on that, the communities in the region reliant on it. So making sure that we can protect that river system for generations to come is vital.

So that's why as a government, we are investing a significant amount of money in projects like this. We've invested, I think it's about half a billion dollars’ worth of money in infrastructure just in Victoria alone to protect the Murray-Darling Basin, but also to assist with water supplies in other parts of the state. And yeah, we're looking at all these sort of projects everywhere across the country.

MARK ROBINSON: How long is this one going to take? MURRAY WATT: Well, I asked that question myself yesterday, Robbo, and realistically, it'll be rolled out over a number of years – probably over a sort of four to five year horizon. The next step is to undertake some much more direct community consultation, because we want to make sure that those who have these channels near their homes are spoken to and listened to about the design of it and things like that.

So there's a few stages to get through yet, but I guess the benefit of yesterday's announcement is that we now have funding certainty for this project and people can get on with those steps about further design, the community consultation, getting the relevant approvals from government, all those kind of things. But yeah, you'll start to see action on this, I'd say, starting in the next few months.

MARK ROBINSON: Okay. And would this have been initially a Coliban initiative or a government initiative? MURRAY WATT: Yeah, well, to be honest with you, it was first raised with me by Lisa Chesters, the Federal Member.

Even before her recount had concluded in the most recent election, she was on the phone to me saying, you know, now that I was in the water portfolio, this was the project that really mattered most to her electorate. And Coliban had obviously done the work. And I recognise, of course, the Allan State Government who own Coliban, who've been really involved in this project as well.

So Coliban, I think, brought the project to Lisa. Lisa brought the project to me. The Victorian Government certainly were lobbying me as well about it.

And we've put it through a process to make sure that it stacks up, and it most certainly does. So it's great news for the region as a whole. MARK ROBINSON: And just finally, Murray, with the federal seats becoming quite a marginal seat now, can we expect to see more feet on the ground from pollies in Canberra?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, look, I mean, full credit to Lisa. I think she's been the Member for about 13 years now, and she's had a good record in getting federal ministers through the electorate and attracting investment from the Federal Government. Obviously, the Thales plant there making those Bushmasters has had everyone from the Prime Minister to the Defence Minister through, and we've certainly invested heavily in that.

It's a big employer in the region. I know that we've also been working closely with the agriculture sector in the region, and Lisa's always on the phone to ministers to get that sort of investment. And everything from improving Medicare services, bulk billing services, helping people with the cost of living – they're the kind of things that we want to really make sure of.

But these sort of long-term investments are obviously good for the region as well. MARK ROBINSON: Yeah, for sure. Thanks so much for joining us this morning, Minister.

And, yep, that is great news for the region. Thank you. MURRAY WATT: No worries, Robbo.

Good to talk. MARK ROBINSON: You too. The Minister for the Environment and Water, Murray Watt, on The Wake Up Call We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture.

We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.