My name is Amelia, I’m a proud mum to two competitive surfers and a surfer myself. I love my coastal community in Noosa, which is why I joined the local government. In Australia we are blessed with pristine, iconic beaches but did you know that we discharge around 1350 gigalitres of treated wastewater into our oceans, equivalent to 2.7 Sydney Harbours?

We are using our beaches, rivers and coastline as dump sites. Water scarcity, extreme weather events, droughts, and population growth require efficient water management and sustainable sewerage and stormwater management. 

This is why I’m calling for a national policy on ocean sewage outfalls:

• No new ocean and estuarine sewerage outfalls to be built along the Australian coastline.
• Dedicated funding to be provided to support local, regional governments and wastewater providers with existing ocean and estuarine outfalls to move to new technologies to recycle all treated wastewater.

Not only are we polluting our beautiful beaches and oceans, but also wasting the potential of wastewater. Yes, that’s right - the potential value of yearly waste water can be around $1 billion if even 20% of it is recycled. (Source - Clean Ocean Foundation)

After La Nina, we can expect long periods of drought. As a country and as a state we must be positioned to deal with climate challenges and water scarcity, we must plan to be droughtproof. This is why we need to create a country and a water industry that supports less wasteful distribution and use of water as well as water treatment and recycling. We need to start valuing the worth of water and start better using potable water.

We have an Australian National Waste Policy that aims at solid waste diversion from landfills which includes strategic and financial investment in resource recovery technologies and markets. We now need to formulate a National Policy on Ocean Sewerage Outfalls that aims at sewage wastewater diversion targets from all waterways, including freshwater, oceans and rivers, waste water reuse and recycle targets, pollution caps, and investment in improving systems to manage existing outfalls. 

Ocean sewerage outfalls are located across beaches and coastline where our children walk, surf, swim and play. It is unacceptable that in 2023, that treated sewage is still being discharged into our oceans, causing environmental harm. The practice that commenced in Australia in the 1960s and must end now.

On June 13, I am taking this motion to the National General Assembly (NGA) in Canberra to get support from all local councils to bring it to the attention of the federal government. I need your help to convince them - please sign and share the petition for a sustainable future.