Barraba Water Supply

Mr PETER DRAPER (Tamworth) [2.04 p.m.]: Motivational speaker Zig Zigler once said:

People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing—that's why we recommend it daily.

I assure members that motivation does last in the Barraba community, because Barraba residents are determined to secure a safe, reliable water supply so they can take a bath every day in clean and hygienic water. In June I spoke in this place of the Barraba community's disappointment when a staff recommendation was put to Tamworth Regional Council "that it not proceed with the Split Rock Dam Pipeline Option as a raw water source for Barraba on the basis of the high capital cost". This motivated Barraba residents to attend the council meetings in large numbers, and thankfully council rejected the recommendations, while making it quite clear that Federal and State authorities would need to contribute substantial assistance if the project were to proceed. What motivates the people of Barraba? Earlier this year I received a letter from Clare Ferris, who attends Barraba Central School. Clare is the president of the student representative council and also school captain for 2008. She wrote:

I am writing to express my concerns as a resident of Barraba, and as a Community and School Leader. As a school leader I have a great awareness of the issues that affect the school and the community, and the restrictions that are placed upon the town and community of Barraba due to the lack of water and its quality. This is of great concern to me.

Clare went on to say:

As a mandatory experiment within our chemistry syllabus my chemistry class was required to conduct water tests and assess the tests for water quality and its uses. When assessing the Barraba town water, we repeated experiments a number of times to ensure accuracy. It was found that when we tested the Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) of the water it was outside the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines requirement. We established the water to be, through rigorous testing 600mg/L. I quote a report from Wilkes University:

"High total dissolved solids may affect the aesthetic quality of the water, interfere with washing clothes and corrode plumbing fixtures. For aesthetic reasons, a limit of 500 mg/L (milligrams per litre) has been established as part of the Secondary Drinking Water Standards."

Clare went on to say:

Through the World Health Organisation report "Total Dissolved Solids in Drinking Water":

"It was reported in a summary of a study in Australia that mortality from all categories of ischemic heart disease and acute myocardial infarction was increased in a community with high levels of soluble solids (TDS), calcium, magnesium, sulphate, chloride, fluoride, alkalinity, total hardness, and pH when compared with one in which levels were low. No attempts were made to relate mortality from cardiovascular disease to other potential confounding factors."

No wonder Barraba residents are motivated to obtain a secure, safe water supply. Following a recent Tamworth Regional Council estimate that a Split Rock Dam to Barraba pipeline would cost $15 million, council has been pressured by the State Government to adopt a third-rate bore solution to Barraba's water woes. As the Barraba development committee points out in its submission to Infrastructure Australia, "There is no real presence of substantial groundwater aquifers in the Barraba area and supply is usually limited, unreliable and only available through fractured rock." Investment in such a solution would be short term and short sighted.

Barraba residents want further investigations into the actual cost of a pipeline, as with the latest estimate being over $15 million the community believes that to make the project viable a more competitive costing should be developed. In Victoria, Wannon Water has recently started a 29-kilometre pipeline, slightly longer than the Barraba proposal, from Casterton to Coleraine, costed at just over $5 million. Wannon Water has informed me that the project cost approximately $1.6 million for materials, $3 million for construction, supervision and administration, and $600,000 for planning approvals and the carrying out of various studies, including cultural, heritage, flora, fauna and design.

Wannon Water pointed out that the proposed pump flow rate for the Barraba pipeline is roughly twice the rate of its project. Understandably, this would affect the pump station cost component. Given that the site for the Barraba proposal is located on the Dividing Range, the project may also require higher duty pumps, further adding to the cost. The question is whether the extra costs would add $10 million to the project. Council has committed $3 million to the project. Therefore, if the cost of the project could be reduced to close to the cost of the Victorian project, we could be looking for a much smaller contribution from Federal and State sources than was previously thought.

The Barraba community is highly motivated, and I congratulate the community development group on the submission it has presented to Infrastructure Australia seeking assistance. The group is currently working to develop economic activity in the region, including a proposed wind farm, a poultry industry and a specialist abattoir. There is also a proposal to rehabilitate and reinvent the Woodsreef asbestos mine site. What Barraba lacks when trying to attract business investment is a safe, secure water supply. This project will not break the bank, and as such, I believe all three tiers of government should unite to bring it to fruition to secure Barraba's future. I wish to pay tribute to my colleague the Federal member for New England, who is in the gallery today. Tony Windsor is a strong advocate on behalf of the Barraba community and I am very pleased to work with him on projects such as this.

Question—That private members' statements be noted—put and resolved in the affirmative.

Private members' statements noted.