Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to support our government's proposed changes to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Amendment (Coronavirus Economic Response Package) Bill 2020. The Reef is not dying but tourism has died in the last four months. Our government wants an additional financial support measure for the Reef tourism industry impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. I personally have lived close to the Reef all my life, taking several trips out there fishing over the many, many years. I still have mates who have fished the Reef all their lives and they tell me that the Reef is as good as ever. Charter boat skipper Kevie Ben, who relates those messages to myself and to the government, comes to mind.

The members for Leichhardt, Herbert, Dawson, Capricornia, Flynn, Hinkler and Wide Bay are all LNP members who live, along with their electorates and the people in their electorates, on the Barrier Reef. All our constituents love the Reef and would do anything to protect it from any elements that you would like to mention.

It is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Tourism operators have to pay other charges as well as the marine park changes, including rates, payroll tax, stamp duty, GST, land tax and workers compensation. The bill waives the environmental management charge for the period of 1 January 2020 to 31 March 2020. The environmental management charge predominantly applies to the tourism activities. Waiving the environmental management charge allows tourism operators and other relevant permit holders to retain the amounts collected for the first quarter of 2020, during a period of time where much of the tourism industry has been stopped dead in its tracks from operating. The four biggest enemies of the reef are cyclones, crown-of-thorns starfish, fresh water from flooding rivers and plastic reaching our shores from ocean currents from all parts of the world. The government values the significant contribution of the tourism industry, which has welcomed so many visitors to our shores and, as other speakers have also related, brought in so many dollars. This has all, sadly, come to an end.

The change will provide much-needed relief for tourism industries, especially in my electorate of Flynn. The government already has measures in place to temporarily waive collection of the environmental management charge for the period from 1 April to 31 December. In effect, this additional charge will mean that there will be no charges made throughout the year 2020. The funds received from the environmental management charge are vitally important to the day-to-day management of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and improving its long-term resilience. The government has ensured that the revenue from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority is maintained to ensure continued delivery of the world-leading management of the Great Barrier Reef.

I commend this bill to the House. It will save our tourism people from starvation and, hopefully, enable them to go back to business as normal once the epidemic ends and our borders are opened up. That's why we encourage the Queensland government to open up our borders as soon as possible. From Lady Musgrave Island to Heron Island off Gladstone, Great Keppel Island off Rockhampton, Magnetic Island off Townsville, and all those beautiful island resorts in the Whitsunday landscape and also right up to Cape York and Thursday Island and onto New Guinea, this is too valuable an asset to leave wasted, and people should be allowed to enjoy it as soon as possible. I urge the state government to open up its borders and get the people back onto the reef which, I know, they will thoroughly enjoy.

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