Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to support the Antarctic Treaty (Environment Protection) Amendment Bill 2011, which will codify into Australian law the multilateral agreements that our country has made regarding the further measures adopted under the Antarctic Treaty of 1961 and the Madrid protocol of 1998. These measures have an important global significance and have been negotiated under the Madrid protocol and the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals to ensure that the Antarctic region is protected. It will provide the minister with the ability to grant safety approval and environmental approval for people operating in the Antarctic. This will ensure that tourism operators undertake their activities in an appropriate and sustainable way to protect the environment. The ability to 'impose, vary or revoke' conditions is also important for non-state tourism operators who are not complying with the original conditions under which they applied to visit Antarctic waters.

As it stands, the amendments contained in the Antarctic Treaty (Environment Protection) Bill are uncontroversial and the passing of this legislation is a measure the government must enact to ensure that we ratify international agreements and fulfil our international obligations. Australia has always been an important negotiator and indeed a leader in protecting and safeguarding this region. As such, the coalition is pleased to support measures which ensure better control and coordination of Australia's Antarctic waters. Most importantly, section 2 of this bill deals with the implementation of the treaty and outlines when the various provisions of the act will come into effect. The commencement of some of the provisions will be delayed until all 28 consultative parties to the treaty have improved their measures. In real terms, what this means is that many of the measures itemised will not be activated until the relevant minister proclaims the date when they do come into force. This is a reasonable arrangement and indeed one that provides a useful lesson for this government—that is, when one is seeking to introduce reforms which have implications for how we deal with other countries, in this case 28 of them, we must take the time to actually talk with the governments of those countries. We must take the time to work with the governments of those countries and come to an agreed position and arrangement with the governments of those countries before implementing the changes in Australia. Unfortunately, if we look at the Prime Minister's great big carbon tax, it is clear that this Labor government did not adopt that same consultative approach in relation to its implementation by any stretch of the imagination. Speaking of imagination, instead the Gillard government has tried to fool the Australian people—and, frankly, delude themselves—by claiming that developed countries such as the United States of America will have enacted a tax on carbon dioxide emissions by 2016. Forging ahead with a debilitating tax on the assumption that your world partners are right behind you would seem foolhardy at best.

It is indeed the case with this particular international treaty that it is in the best interests of all the consultative countries that we enforce the legislation that we are debating today in its entirety before proceeding. This is the only way we can be assured that all those countries will work together to protect the Antarctic region. According to our own government's advice, it is also in Australia's best interest that as a nation we wait to enact legislation if and only if it is the appropriate time to do so in conjunction with our partner countries.

The other relevant issue I wish to comment on in connection with this bill is that of the dispute in recent years regarding whaling in Australia's Antarctic waters. This country has suffered under tired and lazy Labor governments who have not supported other fundamental measures which would protect Australia's Antarctic waters and the whales which live in them. On 19 February 2010 the member for Griffith, then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, told Australians that he would refer Japan to the International Court of Justice for their whaling activities. He specifically declared that he would take Japan to court by November of that year, 2010, if they refused to cease Antarctic whaling. However, the member for Griffith was himself harpooned by our current Prime Minister.

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