Keeping our rivers in top health vital for all of us

Greens’ proposed inquiry to help ensure sustainable management of waterways, writes Cassy O’Connor

Excellent water management, with an emphasis on river health and conservation, is more important than ever before. CASSY O’CONNOR

Tasmania’s beautiful rivers and streams are the lifeblood of our island home. Weaving their way through mountains, forests, and countryside, these waterways sustain ecosystems and biodiversity, supply fresh drinking water to cities and towns, support our world-class agricultural sector, generate electricity, and are crucial for industries like manufacturing and tourism. Water is both a source of life and prosperity, and integral to the Tasmanian way of life.

Given the foundational and unmeasurable value of our waterways, you might think the state’s fresh water management systems have been equipped to protect inland waters, and allow for equitable, sustainable public use. Sadly, not since colonisation. The result – documented by scientists in and outside of government – is the declining health of Tasmania’s rivers.

This decline has exponentially increased in recent times and it’s showing no sign of being reversed. As a state, we have to get better at thinking about the future and planning accordingly.

While we’ve just experienced three consecutive La Nina years bringing more rain and flood across much of the island, meteorologists see a likely hot, dry El Nino weather pattern on the horizon. Global heating is making El Ninos more brutal. There will be more pressure on Tasmania’s waterways and more stress. Excellent water management, with an emphasis on river health and conservation, is more important than ever before.

That’s why the Tasmanian Greens have made river health a key priority.

Over the past two years, we’ve done a deep research dive and talked to stakeholders and experts in freshwater management. Everywhere we’ve looked we’ve found troubling issues with the state government’s complicated, compartmentalised, and inadequate approach.

Everyone we’ve spoken to – Aboriginal people, farmers, scientists, oyster growers, anglers, tourism operators, conservationists, and many more – have raised serious concerns.

Fears for Tasmania’s rivers were vindicated by a major scientific report the Greens uncovered through Right to Information. Written by government experts, the report shows the widespread decline in river health, primarily because of changes in land use.

The authors expected the report to be publicly released, but those plans were quashed. Why? Because the findings had clear implications for the Liberals’ policy to rapidly expand and intensify agricultural operations.

In addition to this bombshell report, we have brought other crucial information into public view for the first time the past two years.

There’s Hydro Tasmania’s ‘Special Licence’ agreement for water rights; the ludicrously low water fees paid by massive companies like Van Dairy; correspondence from TasWater to ministers sounding the alarm about government policy; inadequate government oversight of water licence compliance; water monitoring data collected by Tasmanian Irrigation and much more.

The Greens have asked question after question of Primary Industries and Water Ministers in Parliament and Budget Estimates, written letters, and advocated publicly for more focus on looking after this island’s fresh waters.

The Rockliff government has responded with modest improvements in specific areas of water policy. It’s a relief the relatively new Minister, Jo Palmer, has taken such a keen interest in water management and taken some tentative steps towards improvement.

These early promising signs are only a drop in the Derwent when it comes to the challenges facing our waterways. If Tasmania is going to

avoid a river health crisis – and the associated societal and economic impacts – seen in places like New Zealand, we need to act now.

This is a complicated area, with myriad important considerations and perspectives. It’s much easier to find problems in our waterways than navigate the journey to solutions. The Greens’ proposed move to establish a parliamentary inquiry into fresh-water management is all about finding solutions.

Sustainable water policy crosses party-political lines. A constructive tripartisan inquiry is the best way to bring stakeholders together, hear the evidence, and examine experiences from other jurisdictions. Starting this work now – while it’s still possible to avoid the worst-case scenario – is crucial. Climate change is here. We have to be adaptive, nimble and working together to survive and prosper in this century.

The health of Tasmania’s rivers is not just an environmental issue. It’s also critical for sustaining our communities and small island economy into the future. The Greens are hoping for the support of our Liberal, Labor, and independent colleagues as we move to establish this inquiry.

We want to work collaboratively to make a genuine and lasting difference for this island’s precious waterways, and its people, intimately connected as they are.