Shadow Minister for the Environment and Water, Tony Burke MP, joined Federal Member for Blair, Shayne Neumann MP, at Cribb Park in Ipswich to reaffirm that a Shorten Labor Government will restore urban rivers to their natural beauty.

The $200 million investment will ensure all Australians can benefit from the natural beauty of our waterways.

Australia’s the nation of the “great outdoors”, but for too long, our rivers, creeks and wetlands have been treated like industrial waste drains, ending up polluted, dirty and littered with shopping trolleys rather than being safe spaces for families, kids and school groups to visit.

Volunteer organisation Bremer River Network welcomed the announcement and the boost it may provide to their ‘Garden of Eden’ project.

The ‘Garden of Eden’ project is a local river rehabilitation and revegetation initiative located at Cribb Park in North Ipswich along the banks of the Bremer River. The project’s volunteers plant native trees, remove weeds and participate in other ecosystem restoration activities along the riverbank.

The site is highly erosion-prone due to the frequency and intensity of floods that occur in the area, so the work undertaken is incremental and proactive to erosion issues.

The group regularly hold working bees and community events with other groups like local Scout troops. It is a great example of how grass roots environmental groups and volunteers can have a positive impact on the local environment.

Community groups work hard to protect and revitalise their waterways. This investment will give them the support and resources they sorely need.

Labor understands that local organisations with ‘boots on the ground’ are the most passionate and effective organisations in combating environmental degradation and promoting sustainability.

That’s why Labor will engage state and local governments, local councils, community groups and local environmental organisations to bring urban waterways and habitat corridors back to health.

Local environmental action groups like the Bremer River Network will be able to apply for small grants, benefitting our urban environment, creating jobs and also re-engaging, educating and mobilising local communities to act on local environmental protection.

Labor’s $200 million investment will unlock grant funding for projects to clean up our rivers including:

• Building wetlands to capture and clean and filter stormwater.
• Revegetation and tree planting along corridors.
• Citizen science and education programs along creeks and corridors, including bush kinder.
• Bird boxes and waste capture.
• Employment of indigenous rangers.
• Turning urban waterways back in to creeks and rivers again through changing hard surfaces back to natural surfaces (cement turned to river banks).

Despite rapid urban development, our waterways are often home to many species of wildlife, fish and birds. Reinvigorating these spaces will create new habitat for animals that have been struggling to find a home.

These rivers are the principal waterways to our oceans – that’s why this project is so important to intercept storm water waste and catch it before it makes it to the ocean.

Labor has a proud history of protecting our environment. To be good custodians of our country we need to make sure that we have sustainable and long term policies in place.

This is why Labor has made progressive and sensible policies to act on climate change, large scale land clearing, to protect our oceans from over fishing and marine pollution and to clean up our rivers -  whether they be in the Murray-Darling Basin or in the suburbs of our major cities.
In contrast, the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government have consistently failed to provide federal environment programs that adequately address the urgent need for urban river rehabilitation.

Our cities were built around beautiful, natural rivers because they are a great opportunity to stay connected to nature. Labor will work to restore our urban rivers and river banks to health so that they are a place for local recreation and connection to nature, not an alternative to the rubbish tip.

Only Labor is serious about protecting the environment and making sure it’s there for future generations to enjoy – action on climate change, investing in the environment, and maintaining Australia’s status as the “great outdoors”.

To nominate an urban river or waterway go to: https://www.tonyburke.com.au/urbanrivers/