Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This bill makes minor technical amendments to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975 to rectify an unintended consequence of the sunsetting regime established under the Legislation Act 2003.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act provides for the protection and conservation of the environment, biodiversity and heritage values through zoning, issuing of permissions and implementation of plans of management in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. The amendments made by this bill will prevent plans of management made under the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act from being revoked if regulations giving effect to these plans are repealed and remade to address sunsetting. Plans of management are an important environmental management tool for managing activities within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park on the basis of ecological sustainable use. There are no policy or budgetary implications associated with this bill. It will simply allow the protective measures in the plans to continue uninterrupted.

Plans of management are prepared for intensively used or particularly vulnerable groups of islands and reefs and for the protection of vulnerable species or ecological communities. There are currently four plans of management in place in Cairns, Hinchinbrook Island, Shoalwater Bay and the Whitsundays. The Australian and Queensland governments have been working together for the long-term management of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park for over 40 years. It is the world's largest coral reef ecosystem and includes around 2,900 coral reefs, 600 continental islands, 300 coral cays and about 150 inshore mangrove islands.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and the Queensland Department of National Parks, Sport and Racing, through the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, operate a joint field management program for the marine and island national parks. Amongst other management tools, the field management program uses management plans to deliver practical, on-ground actions to protect and maintain well-functioning marine and island ecosystems that support economic, traditional and recreational uses of the Great Barrier Reef.

Debate adjourned.

See this speech in context