Motion To Alga National General Assembly 2023

Clare, any questions at all? Good, thank you. Nothing further? I'll move it. Councillor Wilkie seconded it, Councillor Lorentson all in favour? That's an aye from Clare. Can we hear the verbal aye please Clare? Yes. Thank you. Thanks Councillors. Thank you. We move on to the last item in public. Which is item 5, the motion to the ALGA National General Assembly 2023.

A three Chair I'll present. This time, but. Ultimately it's a motion that's been brought to the Council table by Councillor Lorentson and Councillor Lorentson will be attending the Australian Local Government Association's National General Assembly in Canberra this year. And like the local government association of Queensland, there's the ability to be able to have motions put before the National General Assembly for consideration of the assembly that forms policy at a national level. It so needs to be at a Federal government policy level to be able to have, firstly it be accepted by the Australian Local Government Association, then debated, and then the Australian association policy executive, which is made up of all of the presidents of the local government associations of each state and territory, then work through a process as to whether this is accepted as policy for lobbying with the Australian Federal government. Thank you Councillor much. ARNSTON SPOKE TO ME ABOUT A NUMBER OF PROPOSED MOTIONS AND I WORKED WITH Council ARNSTON TO GET WHAT WE THOUGHT WOULD BE THE BETTER FIT WITHIN THE GUIDELINES AND AS YOU 'LL NOTE FROM THE REPORT THEY ARE QUITE CLEAR. AS TO WHAT IS REQUIRED AND WHY BECAUSE THEY ARE NATIONAL LEVEL. SO through the Chair I MAY ASK IF Council WARRENSON CAN SPEAK TO Council WARRENSON'S MOTION AND WHAT Councillor Lorentson WARRENSON IS WANTING TO ACHIEVE BUT THIS to bring this to the Council table from the operational element of the Council, from strategic, the Council should be able to make a decision to take that forward.

Amelia Lorentson101:11

I'll speak to it. This is something that I think everyone knows I'm quite passionate about. I went to the LGAQ with a similar motion in Cairns just recently in October 2022 and my purpose there was to get wastewater reuse on the State's list of priorities and that was upheld almost unanimously. So this is sort of at the next step. So I'm going to read what I wrote and I think that will be clearer in my intent and why it's important for me to do this on behalf of Noosa. Our beaches and coastline are some of our most important public places. It's unacceptable that in 2023 treated and untreated sewage is still being discharged into our oceans. A practice that commenced. Australia in the sixties. Our environment and community demand a better way of managing waste. Wastewater creates management problems for local regional governments and wastewater providers that has environmental, socio-economic and public. Health consequences. Wastewater reuse however creates enormous opportunity for local regional governments. Advocating for a national policy and strategy that aims at one, no new ocean and estuarine. Sewage outfalls to be built or developed along the Australian coastline and two, dedicated funding to develop new methods and technologies and make every effort to recycle 100% of all treated wastewater generated to avoid the need to discharge. In the ocean. By advocating this, we encourage the wastewater reuse and we ensure that our ocean outfalls are not used. The ocean foundation, the outfall database, data gathered by. This group in 2016 from 165 of the 175 ocean outfalls. 165 of the 175 ocean outfalls. Provided the first national snapshot of wastewater distribution. Discharges to Australian coastal environments. The total volume of wastewater discharge to Australia's oceans in 2016 was 1,350 gigaliters. Equivalent to 2.7 Sydney harbours. The potential value of this water would have been more than $1 billion had as little as 20% been recycled. Again, that data's come from the Clean Ocean Foundation outfall database. Why I'm going to Canberra is because of what's happening in our backyard here in Noosa. We've got a sewage treatment plant at Burgess Creek that discharges treated effluent directly into the coral sea at Sunshine Beach. The significant volume of discharge and constant outflow going into Burgess Creek and our oceans in my opinion is causing erosion to our dunes and coastal ecosystems. That's also threatening road infrastructure and homes. I question and will continue to question why an activity dumping treated wastewater and contaminated stormwater into our oceans is tolerated and in fact legal. Are we tolerating practices that compromise the environment, are reasonably foreseeable and preventable? Is it environmental best practice? Is the permitted use environment and practices that were okay 20 plus years ago still relevant? And if we're okay with it and the water quality has met water quality criteria, then why aren't we reusing it? So in October 2022, I went to Cairns. I advocated that we needed, as a state and as a country and as a water industry, support less wasteful distribution and use of water, as well as water treatment and recycling. Water scarcity, extreme weather events and population growth require that we are more efficient with our water management and more sustainable with our sewerage and stormwater management. What's required is legislative changes, governmental support and incentives for the utilisation of reclaimed wastewater. We must aim to recycle 100% of wastewater. We must seek out and encourage wastewater reuse markets to drive investment in water reuse that respect the environment and create jobs. We must actively seek out public-private partnerships that increase investments in projects, again, that respect the environment, such as converting sewage treatment plants to produce biogas and electricity from waste. Sources. UNESCO made it clear that climate change and water quality and water scarcity is one of the biggest threats to the health of our environment and community, and whilst it might not be currently possible to way with marine outfalls completely, we must be forward-thinking and do what we can to look at alternatives and new technologies to lessen the environmental impact. We must understand that the value of water is greater than the cost of an ocean outfall and that our beaches, our dunes, our natural environment and the health of Australians must be a key priority for this country. Therefore, ASCET Council supports this motion that calls on the National General Assembly a national policy that aims at no new ocean and estuarine sewerage outfalls to be built or developed along the Australian coastline and that dedicated funding is provided to support local regional governments and wastewater providers with existing ocean and estuarine outfalls. To develop new methods, technologies and make every effort to recycle 100% of all treated wastewater generated within the localities and avoid need discharge in the ocean. People and planet before profit. Thank you.