It was announced with fanfare by the federal Coalition and ACT Labor governments, but Wednesday's signing of an $85 million rescue package for Canberra's waterways was a quiet victory for the ACT Greens.
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Almost two years ago, during their 2012 election campaign, the Greens were ridiculed for calling for millions in unallocated federal funding to be directed to Canberra's polluted lakes and streams.
Both ACT Labor and the Canberra Liberals criticised the policy, and the Greens were accused of making commitments with money they might not have access to.
Environment Minister Simon Corbell said, at the time, that the money would be better spent on the purchase of long-term water entitlements to guarantee water security for Canberra's growing population.
On Wednesday, the federal and ACT governments formalised a plan to use the $85 million over six years to clean up key ACT catchments including Lake Tuggeranong and Yarralumla Creek. The plan, which will begin with two years of research and data collection, is intended to improve the overall health of the Murray-Darling Basin downstream of the ACT.
''I'm really pleased with the deal that's been done with the Commonwealth,'' Greens Minister Shane Rattenbury said.
''I'm just really happy to see that the money is going to get spent on cleaning up the waterways.
''We wrote a proposal [in 2012] saying we should access that $85 million to help fund … wetlands and a range of other water quality projects in the ACT.
''That was the first time that anybody had said, 'Let's use this money for something else.'''
Mr Corbell said on Wednesday that circumstances had changed since the early criticism of the Greens' proposal. ''I make no apology for my comments at the time,'' he said. ''At the time, we were in negotiation with the Commonwealth to try to use the $85 million to secure our long-term water entitlements.
''That was before the Murray-Darling basin plan had been signed off on by all states and the Commonwealth and there was a real risk that we were facing the need to purchase water entitlements in the short term.''
Mr Corbell, in announcing the plan with parliamentary secretary for the Environment Simon Birmingham, said the deal was ''a turning point'' for Canberra's polluted lakes and streams.
''It's a great opportunity for us to capture a large amount of the ACT where our waterways are impacting on the Murrumbidgee, often with pollutant loads,'' he said.