Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I came into this place tonight to give unqualified support to the honourable member for Gippsland's private member's motion. Having listened to his contribution, I now have to change that and qualify it a little bit. I still support it in general but I have to say on point (2)(b), the need for ongoing Commonwealth funding to other agencies, that I agree that we do need ongoing Commonwealth funding but I would make the point that the mission of the Ramsar convention is the conservation and wise use of all wetlands through local, regional and national actions and international cooperation. It has to be funding at all levels. The honourable member did stage a bit of an attack. I can attack back, because the previous Howard Liberal government did not provide funds for Ramsar wetlands. The member was not here, but it is certainly a party that the member for Gippsland is associated with.

On the 40th anniversary of the Ramsar convention, I want to turn my comments to the points of agreement that we all have here. I thank the honourable member for putting this before the House. There are two things I want to say. One is that the official name of the treaty is the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat. I think its original title has been lost, but that reflects the original emphasis on the conservation and wise use of wetlands primarily as habitats for water birds and also for migrating birds. It has just come to be what we call Ramsar. That is what we refer to it as.

In my area, I have WetlandCare Australia, which is a national organisation. It is based in Ballina. It operates out of Ballina but does national work and indeed is involved in international cooperation as well. It has worked for a number of years to put together a national project of some significance, particularly for coastal wetlands up and down the east coast of Australia. I work to support that because I know as members we want to work to support things that directly benefit our electorates. That is our job. But in supporting this project, which would cover 20 wetland areas in New South Wales and in Queensland, I knew that it would directly benefit my area and other areas. I have worked with WetlandCare Australia for a number of years and made sure that they got meetings and that they got to talk with ministers. They did a whole lot of work with departments and experts that they were able to do themselves. I can report that they were successful in securing a $2.5 million grant to work on this major project over 20 areas. The WetlandCare Australia general manager is Nicci Carter. She has been a great advocate for that organisation. The CEO, Ben Copeman, and project manager, Adam Gosling, are committed people. They will work to make sure this is implemented.

The coastal 20 wetland restoration project involved WetlandCare working in partnership with communities, government and industry to undertake restoration of 20 important wetlands in north-eastern New South Wales and South-East Queensland. One of the things that I said at the launch of that was that, given there were so many environmental organisations and programs, in my early days as the member for Page I decided that WetlandCare Australia was an organisation that I wanted to throw my support behind because of the significant work it was doing. There are so many environmental issues that sometimes we have to decide on a focus and go for it. For me it was wetlands for a whole range of reasons. Our coastal wetlands face increasing pressures from climate change and from the twin pressures of rising sea levels and changed rainfall patterns. Also, they are really the lungs of our country and they are the breeding grounds particularly for our fishing, both recreational and commercial. (Time expired)

See this speech in context