Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Prior to the interruption of the debate, I was addressing the House about my opposition to the bill. From my perspective as a Queenslander, my primary concern is that I cannot imagine anybody in their right mind wanting to make it easier for the Newman government to have control over our natural resources; I could not imagine supporting a bill that facilitates delegating approvals for environmental matters to the Newman government. As I said before, matters of national environmental significance should remain matters for the Australian government and for the country as a whole to consider. I was particularly speaking about the Great Barrier Reef, one of the great natural wonders of the world and a place where I spent a lot of time as a child. I hope that many others have the same opportunity, but the Newman government's track record, when it comes to environmental protection, is very poor.

A number of people have raised concerns about handing over environmental approval powers to the Newman government. Friends of the Earth Brisbane have written to me raising concerns about this issue, along with others. As I said earlier, the Cairns Post only today printed an article, began with:

Tourism leaders say the Far North's reputation as a top holiday destination will take a dive if the Great Barrier Reef loses its World Heritage status.

I am not sure if the pun was intended. The article went on to quote Tony Baker, the managing director of the Quicksilver Group—which is one of Cairns' long-established tourism operators—as saying that the

…decision to list the Reef as "in danger" would harm the Far North's reputation.

Of course, he was speaking there of the risk that the UNESCO World Heritage Committee would proceed to list the reef as 'World Heritage in danger'. We know that the UNESCO World Heritage Committee is currently meeting and that it will consider a draft decision expressing concerns about the very subject matter of this bill—the transfer of delegation arrangements from the federal to the state government—being premature and about dumping and dredging, among other things. The Queensland environment minister has gone to Doha to try to argue a case against listing the World Heritage area of the Great Barrier Reef as 'World Heritage in danger'.

We are right to be concerned about that, because as Tony Baker told the Cairns Post:

"I think from our perspective it would be disappointing," he said. "I certainly hope the state and federal governments have done enough to ensure this doesn't happen.

"As a company and an ­industry, we're working very hard to ensure the health of the reef is maintained as best as it can be."

Given that the Queensland government asserts that the tourism industry is one of the four pillars of the Queensland economy, people are right to have grave concerns about the threat to tourism in the event that there is a listing of the Great Barrier Reef as a World Heritage in danger site.

There is a lot of concern in the community about how the UNESCO World Heritage Committee is going to look upon the work that has been done in Australia, and particularly in Queensland, on the reef. The state and industry are hoping that a Queensland government report card on the reef will assist. The report card relates to the reef's water quality and protection plan. Queensland's environment minister is travelling to Doha in the hope of persuading the committee that a reduction in pesticide run-off meets their concerns. I do not intend to diminish or dismiss the work that has been done to reduce pesticide run-off—I congratulate everybody concerned—but that by itself is not enough. On Friday the Fight for the Reef campaign representatives released a new and independent score card that showed the Australian and Queensland governments had gone backwards in addressing the World Heritage Committee's major concerns about the Great Barrier Reef.

The scorecard analysed how the government's track record stacked up against recommendations that the UNESCO World Heritage Committee had made 12 months ago. Particularly of concern to UNESCO—and you can see it from the draft decision that has been published in respect of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee's considerations—is the government's decision to allow dredging and dumping in the vicinity of the Great Barrier Reef. That is of great concern for obvious reasons when you are talking about a beautiful pristine marine park and coral reefs. Accordingly, when the scorecard was released on Friday, WWF Australia CEO, Dermot O'Gorman, said:

The federal government's decision to allow the dumping of three million cubic metres of dredge spoil in the Reef's waters off Abbot Point means it has failed its international responsibility to protect the Reef.

He then went on to criticise the changes that are the subject of this bill, saying:

Since this decision—

and he was talking about the dredging and dumping decision—

the Australian Government has moved quickly to transfer environmental approval powers to the Queensland Government despite that Government's poor environmental track record.

And, of course, that is a reference to this bill, to the bill that was before the Queensland parliament last week, and to the bilateral agreement. He said:

The World Heritage Committee wants a long term plan and concrete action to protect the Reef and instead the Australian Government is washing its hands of responsibility for this national icon. It's a huge concern in the lead up to Doha.—

of course, this statement was made last week—

Our assessment shows the Australian and Queensland Governments have failed to make "good progress or complete" a single one of UNESCO's requests.

Great Barrier Reef Campaign Director with the Australian Marine Conservation Society, Felicity Wishart, said at the same time that the budget cuts announced since January also flew in the face of the World Heritage Committee's recommendations. She said:

At a time when UNESCO is advising Australia to increase investment to protect the Reef the Federal Government has cut funding to the Environment Department and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

The Queensland and Australian Governments are risking the Reef's World Heritage status. The Reef provides 63,000 jobs and $6 billion to the Queensland economy. A decision to protect the Reef is a decision to protect our tourism industry and the Queensland economy.

As I have said, the Newman government has made a point of saying that the tourism industry is one of the four pillars of that economy. The campaign representatives said that they were 'calling on the Australian and Queensland governments to address the most serious concerns of the World Heritage Committee to avoid a possible listing as "in danger" in 2015'. The state environment minister has said that the concerns about dredging and dumping are really coming from green groups, but that is obviously not the case, given that UNESCO itself has in its draft decision specifically raised the concern about dredging and dumping. It is crystal clear that the last thing this parliament should be doing is facilitating the delegation of power to state governments.

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