Northern Territory Water Plan Welcomed

Member for Lingiari and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia and Indigenous Affairs Warren Snowdon today welcomed the Prime Minister's announcement of a Northern Water Task Force.

But Mr Snowdon said he hoped it would build on the sound water conservation work already being carried out by State and Territory Governments in the North.

'It's a step forward, but I'm conscious that we've already had a national water fund worth $2 billion for the past three years and precious little has come out of it,' he said.

'I sincerely hope the proposed Northern Task Force bases its work on sound research, true partnerships and participation by the scientific, commercial and Indigenous communities as well as governments and recognises the wide community interest in the proper environmental management of Northern water catchments.

'But Northern Australia's research capacity has been drastically cut as a result of decisions made by the Howard government.

'The CSIRO's funding has been restricted, the Tropical Savannahs CRC is winding down and the Weeds CRC was defunded last year – all of them crucial to our understanding of water regimes in northern environments.

'So we'd expect funding for CSIRO to re-establish its research base in Darwin and funding for other agencies to pick up where the CRCs left off

'This task force will also need an appreciation of the North's infrastructure needs - both commercial and essential services like roads and communications - if this vision is to come to fruition.

The bottom line is that the appropriate development and use of the North's water resources will not happen by government fiat, but will take careful planning, solid partnerships and a ground-up approach.

'Fortunately the task force will include Aboriginal landowners and I'm pleased that that's up front and not an afterthought.

'I'm looking forward to seeing how this pans out and what it eventually produces, but they'll be doing us all a favour is they plug the brain drain first,' Mr Snowdon said.

2007-01-25