ESTIMATES COMMITTEE PROCEEDINGS – 17 JUNE 2010
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Mr CHANDLER: Minister, what improvements have Power and Water made to the water discharge
into Buffalo Creek since the issue was raised last year and you promised to come down hard on that
particular issue?
Mr HAMPTON: Thank you, member for Brennan. Buffalo Creek discharge by Power and Water is not
acceptable. It needs to be improved and we are taking steps, as I said last year, to improve that to
make sure it does not happen.
Mr CHANDLER: Can you detail what those steps are?
Mr HAMPTON: Yes. In terms of Buffalo Creek flows to Shoal Bay, it receives treated sewage
discharge from Leanyer/Sanderson waste water treatment plant. Both my department and
researchers from the Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge Research Consortium have been doing
monitoring and research on the water and sediments of the creek. The results suggest that high
nutrient loads from the treatment plant coupled with limited tidal flushings are creating high levels of
nutrients in episodes of extreme oxygen depletion in the creek. This is what gave Buffalo Creek such
a poor report in our recent harbour report card.
As I said, that is in the public arena. It is nothing that we are trying to hide. It is in the public domain.
What is happening at the moment is my department is now in negotiations with Power and Water
Corporation on clear actions to remediate the creek system. There is more detailed modelling of the
water flows and dispersion that is occurring. Monitoring by my department is ongoing. Licensing
beyond the current 2011 licence period will be dependent on the demonstration of real improvements
and I am not sure if Mr Darcey would want to add to that.
Mr DARCEY: No I do not have a great deal to add to that.
Mr GRANT: I could just add, perhaps, clarification. What Power and Water does to ameliorate the
problem is not really our business. What we are doing is setting the target. So what we are speaking
to them about is what they have to deliver and how they deliver it is really their business.
Mr CHANDLER: I am happy with that. I could talk about the harbour all day. Probably the last
question to wrap it up is: minister, has a long term environmental study been done to provide baseline
information how a growing Darwin, Palmerston and Weddell and its increasing sewage levels, may
affect our harbour.
Mr HAMPTON: In terms of the Environmental Impact Assessment Act, it is a very big body of work
and we did commission the Environmental Protection Authority to do as we announced recently with
the Darwin Harbour Advisory Committee, we have endorsed and supported their call for a integrated
monitoring and research plan for the Darwin Harbour and that has been supported by the
government. I do not know if that answers your question but there are certainly two important bodies
of work that we have commissioned and we have supported.
Mr CHANDLER: Thank you, minister. I note the recent announcement about a complementary solar
power system for the Watarrka National Park Ranger Station, and I congratulate you on that initiative.
However, within the scope of the Greening the Territory Initiative, one of the specific tasks was to
develop a detailed proposal for substituting a large component of diesel generation with renewable
energy in remote communities, including financing and funding option by 30 April, this year. Has that
proposal been delivered to you?
Mr HAMPTON: Is that in this output area?
Mr CHANDLER: I hope so, it is about the environment and sustainability.
ESTIMATES COMMITTEE PROCEEDINGS – 17 JUNE 2010
Mr DARCEY: We would have to take that question on notice, I think.
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Question on Notice No 8.12
Mr CHAIRMAN: Do you mind repeating it, member for Brennan?
Mr CHANDLER: I will not repeat the part where I congratulated you.
Mr HAMPTON: Please? You do not do it very often.
Mr CHANDLER: Within the scope of the Greening the Territory initiative, one of the specific tasks was
to develop a detailed proposal for substituting a large component of diesel generation with renewable
energy in remote communities. That was due on 30 April. Has that proposal been delivered to you?
The CHAIRMAN: That is question 8.12.
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Mr CHANDLER: Do you concede recent events in and around our harbour have uncovered serious
shortcomings within our environmental processes? Given that we do live in a world of self-regulation,
can you assist me with understanding how you or your department would ever know of a breach,
even a small one, if when reports are submitted the results are, let us say, moderated. Do you have
any random inspection programs? Do you have any inspectors who might undertake follow-up
samples the day before or, perhaps, the day after a department, business enterprise, or company
undertake their own sampling?
Mr HAMPTON: I am happy to pass that on to my officers.
Mr DARCEY: The licensing regime is self-reporting. We do not have random compliance checks. We
expect the licence holders to report annually, in most cases. If there are any breaches in the
meantime, we expect them to report to us on that.
Mr CHANDLER: We expect a lot.
Mr DARCEY: No. The recent announcement by the minister about increasing resources in that area
will help alleviate that.
Mr CHANDLER: Thank you. The Country Liberals released its very practical climate change pollution
reduction policy last year, and you and your government criticised it strongly because it was not linked
to a carbon pollution reduction scheme and, further, went on to say that a climate change policy must
be linked to a national CPRS or it will fail. Where does this now leave your own climate change policy,
given the Prime Minister has now walked away from what he described as the greatest moral
challenge of our generation - walked away, backflipped on his CPRS? How does your policy expect to
work, given it was linked? And remember, it had to be linked to succeed. How will your policy now
work without the national CPRS or ETS?
Mr HAMPTON: Member for Brennan, I am happy to answer that, but that is related to a different
output group in my portfolio responsibilities. It is the climate change policy. There is a climate change
output in here.
Mr TOLLNER: Now he has given me a heads up. What is coming?
Mr CHANDLER: All right. I am happy to – even though that is probably finished now. It rests with the
Chief Minister, does it not?
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