Dr. Michelle Minihan:

To bring the Senator completely up to date on the figures, our 2021 report is due out later this week and we will report that 31 water supplies failed to meet the pesticides standard in 2021. That is down slightly on 33 water supplies at the end of 2020. The main herbicide found was 2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid, MCPA, which continues to dominate the exceedances we see for pesticides. There are six water supplies on our immediate action list for pesticides at the end of 2021, and five of those have catchment focus groups in place to undertake measures in the catchment, raising awareness, educating and advising as to the correct use of pesticides in those catchments and bringing together the relevant stakeholders to inform responsible pesticide use and action. We saw a small reduction in pesticide exceedances last year, which is certainly welcome.