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

They are all publicly available; some of them were previously tabled by the member for Wentworth. The member for Wentworth has his photo in one of those documents, proclaiming it as an example of good science.

The other argument that we had from those opposite was that there was no consultation. What they have conveniently done is only refer to round 5 of the five rounds of consultation, and they have said it went for 30 days and that industry wanted it to go the 90. Why were those opposite wanting it to go for 90? There is one reason, and one reason only, they wanted it to go for 90 days: so that the disallowance period would go right to the end of the year. That is the only reason, because those who had been engaged had been engaged for years in this process, with five rounds of consultation. Against that was a situation where the different arguments had been put, there were rounds of consultation I had attended personally, roadshows and full days where people would come in at community meetings and meet directly with my department and work through the different issues, and three-quarters of a million submissions. Yet even though my department specifically disaggregated those submissions so that it was clear which ones were campaign submissions, which ones were individually written, which ones came with detailed scientific back-up from peak bodies and things like that—even though that disaggregation was provided and fully documented—people opposite had the audacity in this debate to pretend that that never occurred and to say that the three-quarters of a million were all presented as though they were all the same. That is fundamentally untrue, but that has characterised the entire argument we have had from those opposite.

During this debate, I heard the member for Dawson expressing shame about the Howard government's actions on the Great Barrier Reef—and I will give him points for at least being honest on that. But the member for Dawson also said, 'The Coral Sea is closed to all forms of fishing.' That is just factually untrue.

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