Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to, first of all, express my great appreciation to the minister for the recent close to half-billion-dollar investment in the Great Barrier Reef. Of course, my electorate from Cairns up to the Torres Strait actually takes a very considerable area of the reef. I'm pleased to see that we are continuing to invest in what has been world-class management. It really annoys me when I hear arguments in the media—it's inevitably in the southern based media—where they're talking about saving the reef. When you think about this, you see it's absolute nonsense. It is actually designed to prompt those in metropolitan areas who know absolutely nothing about the issue to open up their chequebooks, to be a fundraiser to these particular organisations. I think that it does a huge amount of damage in our area, particularly in relation to our tourism industry. The reef tourism operators in many ways are part of the custodians of the reef.

I just noted the previous speaker's comment in relation to the Coral Sea. Let me assure you that the best way to totally destroy an ecosystem is just to kick everybody out, lock it up, and think the lockup mentality is the best management tool. I'm just telling you now that a lockup mentality is not good management. These areas need to be utilised. There's a thing called sustainability. And, provided that that is followed, whether it be through extractive industries like fishing or whether it be through recreational use, that has to be the key criteria. And the management that we're seeing happening up there at the moment in this beautiful area is, I think, a credit to Australia in that we are leading the world in reef management. And we're not 'saving' the reef. The reef doesn't need to be saved. It needs to continue to be managed and to make sure that we have best practices there to make sure that anything we do on there is sustainable and, when there are issues confronting the reef—we talk about the recent bleaching. I understand the bleaching. The bleaching is an event caused from hot currents that come from South America. I can assure you that, by destroying our own industries along the eastern seaboard, that's not going to stop those warm currents coming across from South America. What's going to help to influence those is what they do in China, what they do in India and what they do in the United States. That's what's going to make the big difference there to get those changes that will have an impact.

In the meantime, we have to do best-possible practice. I've got to say that, again, we had that $2 billion that we announced earlier on and now another half a billion dollars, and some of the work we're doing there, particularly in relation to inflows into the agricultural sector, have made some very significant inroads. But one of the things I'd like to see and I'd encourage you to consider, Minister, is something like a Clean Seas program mark II, where we start to look at outflows from all our coastal cities. That will help to complement the work to make sure we deal with those issues as well.

I've got to say to you: congratulations on the efforts to date. We'll continue to maintain our status in that area. I'd like to ask the minister to explain how, given our record in Great Barrier Reef investments, those investments will benefit my electorate of Leichhardt. I know that there are many benefits, but I'd like you to explain those too, if you could, for me. Thank you very much.

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