Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities) Share this | Hansard source

I am glad that there is a side of the House willing to ask a question on this issue. It was extraordinary that those opposite were willing to damage the national interest on this issue with their talk of a 'killer attack on the way'—and we have all been waiting with suspense. Well, a major announcement was made last week. Australia has always been one of the world leaders in national parks on land. Yellowstone and the Royal National Park were the first two national parks on land in the world. Last week Australia also became the world leader on national parks in the ocean. That is something that this side of the House is very proud of and it is something on which—despite the games that are being played by those opposite—it was thought there was a level of bipartisanship. The principles and the plan were first put forward under the Keating government, but the commitments that were made internationally were made at a conference known as Rio+10 in Johannesburg, where the representative of Australia was a bloke by the name of Kemp—Environment Minister Kemp—when the other side signed up to the words that it would be a 'representative, comprehensive and adequate network' of marine national parks.

Since then the objections have come—with Ron Boswell, interestingly, becoming the person to commit the opposition to try to tear this apart—on grounds relating to the impact on commercial fishers and rec fishers. Let us look at each of them. In terms of commercial fishing, the impact on the gross value of production is between one and two per cent of the total industry—a one to two per cent impact. On rec fishing, which has been the principal issue that the Leader of the Opposition has identified as being his concern, if you are on the east coast and you are anywhere south of Mackay, you have got to get out in your tinny almost to Lord Howe Island before you find the first area where rec fishers are not allowed to go. Even if you are in Mackay you have to take your tinny for 400 kilometres before you reach Marion Reef. Once you get to Marion Reef you are banned from fishing on it but you are still allowed to fish around it—containing the key pelagic species that the rec fishers are after. We have a situation where, in relation to the fear campaign that they have wanted to run during the last 12 months, the time is up. Rec fishers know that this is in Commonwealth waters, a long way away from the areas that they want, and Australians are proud to be the world leaders in establishing protection of the oceans.

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