Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Our magnificent Great Barrier Reef, the only living thing on the planet visible from the moon, is a living natural resource that should be cherished and protected, but this coalition government is failing to protect the reef from every angle. We know that the biggest threat to the Great Barrier Reef is climate change, but what have we seen from that side of the House? We have seen not only that they have undone what Labor did when it was in government but inaction since then, and we've seen emissions rise by 1.4 per cent in the last year. The government's own emissions projections show that Australia will not even come close to meeting our obligations under the Paris agreement.

Under this government's weak emissions reduction target of the National Energy Guarantee there will be very little large-scale investment in renewable energy for the entire decade of the 2020s. Carbon pollution data confirms pollution is rising and will continue to rise under this government's policies all the way to 2030. This government's budget saw not one measure to tackle climate change, not a single cent spent on new climate change policy. You can't be serious about saving the reef without a serious plan to tackle climate change, but Prime Minister Turnbull is too busy pandering to the conservative climate change deniers to take action.

The reef is also an economic issue. Tourism employs around 225,000 Queenslanders, both directly and indirectly. The Great Barrier Reef alone supports 64,000 full-time jobs, and these people rely on a healthy, thriving reef. Deloitte Access Economics estimates the value of our greatest natural treasure, the Barrier Reef, is $56 billion. In addition, the report estimates the reef contributed $6.4 billion to the Australian economy in 2015-16. For communities that rely on tourism for local jobs there will be immense economic consequences if the reef deteriorates. In fact, we've already seen a drop-off in tourism numbers.

One way to protect the reef is through marine parks, but Australia's network of marine parks has been gutted by this government. No matter which way you look at it, the government has now spent four years engaging in the largest removal of area from conservation protection in Australia's history. The Coral Sea has gone from being the jewel in the crown of the Commonwealth marine parks, protecting the eastern side of the Great Barrier Reef, to now being a haven for long-lining and trawling, the same method used by the supertrawler.

People in my electorate are very concerned about the environment, marine parks and the reef. More than 350 people have emailed me about marine parks in the past few months alone, and Labor have serious concerns about the Great Barrier Reef funding announcement in the budget. The government wants to give itself a pat on the back for that $500 million in the budget, but $444 million of that is in a grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, and that process has been chaotic at best. The extent to which the Great Barrier Reef Foundation was properly consulted and prepared for an increase in funding of this scale is not clear. After all, it hasn't turned over more than $10 million per year in the last two years, and going from $10 million to $444 million is a massive increase in scale.

The minister repeatedly confirmed during Senate estimates that the foundation did not submit an application, and a competitive process tender was not followed. How is this possible for one of Australia's greatest natural assets? It is not clear that the foundation is even able to cope with a grant of this size, and there is no plan—and there was no plan when the $440 million grant was announced. That is why Labor are making a freedom-of-information request about the funding provided for the Great Barrier Reef Foundation. We want to protect the Barrier Reef. It's globally significant, it's a natural wonder, and we should put in our best efforts.

When Labor were in government, we introduced a carbon trading scheme and we also set up the marine parks—the largest marine park network in the world, and it's something that I was very proud of. It's quite tragic to see this government rip that progress apart and then sit on its hands for so long. We have seen serious bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef over the last couple of years. The reef itself is in danger from climate change. It's just tragic for the entire world, really, that this government isn't taking more action. I strongly urge the members on that side to rethink their position on this and take real action on climate change.

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