Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

the Great Barrier Reef, as he rightly interjects. The Great Barrier Reef is one of our major natural treasures. It is also one of our most fragile environments and, as such, is exceptionally vulnerable to impact from oil spillage. Just imagine what a major oil spillage would mean for that wonderful marine environment, the Great Barrier Reef.

This legislation can increase the maximum compensation available for a single incident from $350 million—as I referred to when debating the previous legislation that went through parliament in May this year—to $1.3 billion. Australia’s accession to the supplementary fund will ensure that compensation to Australians following an oil spillage from an oil tanker is maximised and that adequate financial resources are provided for the clean-up and restoration of Australia’s marine environment. This bill will also play an important role in the protection of the marine environment.

I believe this is good-news legislation which ensures that, if there is pollution damage resulting from spillage from an oil tanker, adequate compensation will be available. Over and above that, I would like to emphasise the importance of making sure that we have a safe, viable Australian shipping industry, one which has controls in place to ensure that our fragile marine environments are protected, one which makes a commitment to the skills of a viable marine industry and one which makes a commitment to using the highways traversing our coastline in a safe and secure way.

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