http://news.smh.com.au/sewage-outfalls-a-disgrace-hunt/20080102-1jv5.html

The federal opposition has called on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to pressure state governments to stop dumping sewage into Australia's coastal waters.

Environment spokesman Greg Hunt will meet later this month with his state Liberal counterparts to plan a Clean Up Our Coasts campaign aimed at forcing state governments to recycle sewage water currently being dumped into the ocean.

"There are about 140 ocean outfalls around Australia. That's 1,800 billion litres of sewage that's being dumped, anything from raw to primary to secondary and a very small amount of tertiary, into our coasts," Mr Hunt told AAP.

"That's a pollution problem and a monumental waste of recyclable water.

"The rest of the developed world makes much better use of their recyclable water than the Australian states do generally."

I think so.

How would you achieve this?

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Sea changers 'turfed out' coalition

http://news.smh.com.au/sea-changers-turfed-out-coalition/20080108-1ksj.html

Sea changers turfed out the coalition at the federal election because it failed to address the population explosion in coastal areas, a local government group says.

The National Sea Change Taskforce said non-metropolitan coastal electorates were decisive in Labor's victory, accounting for nearly half the seats which changed hands at the November poll.

Labor won 12 such electorates in Queensland, NSW and Tasmania amongst the 25 seats which changed hands nationally.

Taskforce chairman Joe Natoli said the former coalition government suffered a backlash from coastal voters upset by a lack of support in the past decade over growth pressures.

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Half of Sydney's beaches are on the nose

http://news.smh.com.au/half-of-sydneys-beaches-are-on-the-nose/20080111-1lja.html

More than half of Sydney's beaches had unsafe levels of raw sewage in the past year, according to NSW government test results.

According to the statistics collected by Beachwatch field officers, 58 of 100 sites in Sydney's waterways recorded hazardous levels of the faecal coli forms and enterococci bacteria for at least one month last year.

Some, such as Malabar beach in Sydney's south, failed safe swimming standards for four or five months of the year, News Ltd reported.

The highest levels of the bacteria were recorded in Middle Harbour and Botany Bay.

The bacteria can cause gastroenteritis, skin, eye and ear infections and irritations.

The worst readings were in the months of June and November, which saw unusually heavy rainfall.