Mr PEARCE (9:08 PM) —Mr Speaker, I realise how sought after these positions are in the adjournment debate, and I thank you for giving me the call. On Thursday, 10 June this year I had the opportunity to visit the manufacturing facility of Davey Products in Scoresby along with the local state member, Mr Kim Wells. As you know, Mr Speaker, Aston has a large and diverse local economy, and my visit to Davey Pumps was part of my ongoing program of local business visits. But this visit was about more than just the local economy; it was also about the local environment. I was very keen to discuss with the team at Davey Pumps practical ways that home owners and businesses can support efforts to conserve our water supply in Australia.

The Howard government has made an unprecedented commitment to environmental sustainability across all of Australia and is investing more in the environment than any government in our nation's history. This commitment has been marked by the development of partnerships between government, industry and the community and the introduction of programs that identify and solve environmental challenges not just nationally but locally. By working together with a more local focus, our collective efforts have been able to achieve more effective outcomes. That has been proven through programs like the Natural Heritage Trust.

Of our current environmental challenges, as we in this place all know, water is one of the most significant. There are two key reasons for this. The first is that Australia is the second driest continent on earth behind Antarctica, and the second is that Australians are the largest consumers of water per capita in the entire world. I am pleased to say that Davey Pumps are certainly doing their share to help conserve this important natural resource. This Australian owned, Aston based manufacturer has created an innovative new water controller which can reduce household demand for mains water by up to a massive 40 per cent. The water controller, known as RainBank, automatically switches the water source from the domestic mains to rainwater in a household tank when a toilet is flushed or a washing machine used. You attach it to your tank, and instead of using high-quality mains-supplied drinking water for flushing the toilet and washing clothes the system automatically switches over to use rainwater.

The potential water savings nationwide are absolutely enormous. Household toilets and laundries use the equivalent of around 5,000 Olympic sized swimming pools of quality drinking water a week. I understand that this is the only such product available and has significant export potential, which is great news for Australia and of course for the local economy in Aston.

To demonstrate the significance of this innovation, I can tell you that RainBank, invented and developed by Davey Pumps, recently won the Savewater 2004 award for product development and commercialisation. The investment of Davey Pumps in this new product is another positive boost not just for continuing employment and economic growth in the local community but also for the environment. Davey Pumps is not just talking green; it is acting green. RainBank is an Australian innovation which can make a substantial contribution to addressing our national shortage of drinking water, as well as delivering yet another export boost to Australia and to Aston.

I want to thank David Cleland, Max Ekins and all the team at Davey Pumps for hosting me and I commend them for their tremendous work in the area of water conservation. In particular, I want to congratulate Mark Lance, whom I had the pleasure of meeting and who is the man responsible for inventing and developing the RainBank product. Davey Pumps has been going strong for around 70 years and, with continued innovations like RainBank and with support from the Howard government, I am confident that it will continue to thrive for the next 70 years.