Newsroom

February 2, 2022

Katter’s Australian Party Leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter MP has called on all levels of government to quit playing platitudinal politics with the Great Barrier Reef and instead put their money where the real problem lies – the leeching of urban and human waste into waterways.

Mr Katter said there were 96 sewerage treatment facilities across Queensland, 22 of which are in GBR catchment areas, that were not compliant with modern technology and as a result were unnecessarily discharging high levels of nitrogen and phosphorous in waterways, the ocean and also the Reef.

These two elements are the focus of ongoing efforts by the Palaszczuk Labor Government to micro-manage farming practices across five communities in GBR catchment areas despite bureaucrats being unable to provide evidence that agricultural practices are causing pesticides to reach, and to harm, the Reef.[1]

Mr Katter said, if the Government was as concerned about phosphorous and nitrogen impacting the GBR as it claimed to be, it would have addressed the urban wastewater issues “yesterday”.

As part of their RegenAqua macroalgal bioremediation project, aquaculture and biotech company Pacific Bio has developed a technology that can innovate the way communities manage their effluent waste.

The innovative approach uses native green macroalgae to naturally remove nitrogen and phosphorus from water and is designed to “support organisations to achieve discharge license compliance and can effectively return restored marine and fresh water to the environment”.[2]

The RegenAqua project is designed to address the 22 highest-volume sewage treatment plants (STPs) in municipal locations along the Queensland coast.

At these sites, it would remove approximately 508 tonnes of dissolved inorganic nitrogen and 102 tonnes of inorganic phosphorus currently being discharged into the GBR, solving for 14 per cent of reef water quality targets set by the Australian and Queensland Governments.

Mr Katter said, following the Prime Minister’s additional $1 billion promised investment in the GBR, the $132 million[3] needed to upgrade the 22 relevant STPs was “small change”.

“What price do our Governments truly place on the environment?” Mr Katter asked.

“If they are willing to place farmers and their negligible impact on the Reef at the centre of their policies, like lambs to the slaughter, why aren’t they doing all they can to ensure to address the issue of urban wastewater and sewage?

“We have a great, home-grown solution here with Pacific Bio who can process the sewerage to the tertiary levels that are needed.

“Once again I am calling on the government to support Pacific Bio in their initiatives to clean up the sewerage and discharge onto the Reef because it sure isn’t the farmers that are the problem – it’s more likely coming from those urban areas and now we’ve got a solution for that.

“This solution has been delivered right in their laps.”