Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to oppose the member for Leichhardt's motion on the flooding of communities in the Torres Strait. My electorate is a long way away from the Torres Strait, and I would particularly like to acknowledge the passion of the member for Leichhardt about this topic. I know he has got credibility and the respect of his community for representing the needs of his constituents. However, I will point out a couple of things in response to his speech. This problem did not begin on election night 24 November 2007—as the member for Leichhardt acknowledged. He indicated that it had been a problem confronted by the Howard government beforehand. He said that it had been going on for six years, and obviously we have only been in power for less than five years. So this has been an ongoing issue for a long time. It did not commence on 24 November 2007. That is the first thing that anyone with common sense would understand.

There is another thing that we need to understand—and I say this with a little bit of knowledge, as the Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs; and I note that the member for Bonner is in the chamber. We have a bit of familiarity with the Constitution. When I look through the Constitution, I cannot see a reference to the Commonwealth government having responsibility for local graves. That is not in any way to take away from the heartbreak that it must be to experience the graves of your ancestors and loved ones being washed out to sea. I am not in any way minimising the heartache that is associated with that. But, when I read the Constitution, I cannot find a Commonwealth constitutional head of power to look after every single grave in Australia. For Commonwealth war graves, whether they be in Gaza or Thailand or Flanders, we do have a responsibility. However, the 720 local councils in Australia have a responsibility to look after their local graves. That is the first bit of law that I am sure the member for Leichhardt would agree with.

I remind the member opposite that there is actually another level of government between the local government and the Commonwealth government, and that is the state government. The Queensland state government has some additional oversight over local governments and their ability to look after the tasks that they do. As the member knows, with the DOGIT lands in his part of the world, state government and local government interaction is much closer than the interaction between the Commonwealth government and local government. These are some of the facts that we need to get out there.

The member for Leichhardt seemed a little bit ungrateful about the federal government's announcement of $12 million to help fund coastal protection works in the Torres Strait, but it seemed to be more about the delivery rather than the actual policy. This is a complex issue that has required extensive consultation. I am not shying away from the Commonwealth responsibility for that. It has been part of the Labor Party's responsibility since election night 2007. But, I am sure if I look through the member for Leichhardt's webpage, I will see his great press releases commending the Labor government for delivering for the Torres Strait Islander community in all those other areas.

Mr Entsch interjecting—

I will take that interjection that, no, I will not! The member for Leichhardt said: 'It is all about the politics, not about finding solutions.' They were his words. He said that the cause of the problem has nothing to do with climate change. I also think he seemed to be drifting away from the bipartisan support of the parliament for our aid policy in looking after Pacific nations. I am not sure if that was a frolic of his own or a new departure in foreign policy. I will have to explore that later.

The reality is that the Labor government has invested $12 million through this $5 million grant to the Torres Strait Island Regional Council because we know that the Torres Strait has particular problems with their funding base. The nation turned its eyes to the Torres Strait recently on the 20th anniversary of Mabo. We looked at the member for Leichardt's area and the contribution that people there have made. We know about the connection of Torres Strait Islander communities to their land and how, from that, the High Court was able to extrapolate that the mainland Indigenous community also has a longstanding commitment to their land. The $12 million investment will be provided to the Torres Strait Island Regional Council and the Torres Strait Regional Authority to work in partnership to deliver seawalls in six island communities and repair the damaged infrastructure. As Commonwealth parliamentarians we well know that the local government area is where the rubber meets the road, where the shovel meets the road. The local people know the concerns of their community, and the opposition's suggestion that climate change has not had an impact on rising sea levels flies in the face of 99.9 per cent of scientists. Most right-thinking people understand. They can see the tracking. If we look at the Keeling curve and the rise in parts per million of CO2 recorded scientifically around the world, we know that there is a greater cause and that it did not somehow, magically, become a problem on 24 November 2007.

On this side of the House we are a lot more serious about taking out the politics and finding the solutions. We are investing $200 million in projects right across Australia in the second stage of a five-year regional funding program. In Queensland alone, eight projects have been funded under the RDAF round 2, with the Australian government contributing $33.67 million to projects worth more than $134 million. I note the member for Leichardt stood up and said—I assume with some authority, after consultation with his state member and his LNP premier—that the Queensland state government would not give a single dollar to this project. I am not sure whether that was what he was suggesting and whether he had the authority to say that the state government will not match the Commonwealth. Or was he saying that it is too hard? I thought the member for Leichardt had been meeting with Premier Newman. I wish he had talked about his meetings with Premier Newman to request that the Queensland government match the federal government's contribution of $12 million to build seawalls in the Torres Strait. I would hate to remind the member for Leichardt that if Premier Newman cannot even commit to protecting permanent workers in the Australian government after the election, as he did before the election, he might shy away from committing any funding to protect seawalls in the Torres Strait. I ask all Queensland federal members of the LNP to call on Premier Newman to match this $12 million funding commitment by the federal government and to make a commitment to provide coastal infrastructure to protect people in the Torres Strait from destructive tides. Premier Newman has been the Lord Mayor of Brisbane, but I hope he will be the Premier for all of Queensland and make sure that we are looking after these people, who are a long way away from George Street.

The member for Leichardt is very proficient in describing problems, but I would suggest that he is not necessarily being part of the solution. I seem to recall that he was the member of parliament responsible for the Torres Strait for about 12 years. I do not think that these tides magically appeared at midnight on 24 November 2007. If we go back to 3 March 1996, when he became responsible for the Torres Strait, the reality is that king tides were starting to become a problem even then.

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