Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I travel around my electorate of Cowper. Everyone here knows that it is the most beautiful electorate in Australia, from Port Macquarie up to Coffs Harbour, with the beautiful valleys of Macleay and Nambucca in between and the plateaus of Dorrigo. I speak to all the schoolchildren and with people in the street, and we talk about the environment and what we as a government are doing, but I always bring it back to thinking globally and acting locally. That is what I've been trying to do as a first-term backbencher, in talking to people and in understanding what they want—thinking globally but acting locally.

I'm very pleased to say that this government has helped my electorate locally. I'll look at the beautiful Solitary Islands Marine Park, just north of Coffs Harbour: the marine park is home to more than 550 species of reef fish, over 90 species of hard coral and is dotted with islands. It brings in an estimated annual economic value of about $1.3 million to the region. One way our government has been enhancing the protection of this park is through the Communities Environment Program. The Dolphin Marine Conservation Park, which is an iconic business in Coffs Harbour—it's been there for decades—received a $20,000 grant from our government to help marine wildlife and improve conservation education.

On 10 September, I had the great pleasure of meeting up with one of the scientists there from Dolphin Marine Rescue and five local schoolkids to release two green sea turtles at Diggers Beach, just north of Coffs Harbour. It was great fun. We got in the water and let these well-advanced turtles go. It was one of the great experiences I've had not only in this place but growing up as a country boy. Given that, globally, the population of green sea turtles are on the decline, it was great to be able to release these two turtles back into the wild. The kids who attended were part of EcoGrom, an education program run by Dolphin Marine Rescue for children interested in marine biology.

It would be remiss of me not to talk about the government's approach to the protection of the environment in light of the black summer fires. In my electorate of Cowper, fires burned across the very dry landscape from about September to February 2020. In response, it was environment minister Sussan Ley who came up immediately after with the Treasurer and the Threatened Species Commissioner, Dr Sally Box. In response to those fires, the environment minister provided an initial investment of $50 million on that day. Among those other measures, up to $25 million was provided to national resource management groups in bushfire affected areas to carry out emergency interventions, $7.5 million was provided for on-ground wildlife rescue and $5 million was provided for Greening Australia to reseed native vegetation in areas destroyed by bushfire. In May, our government committed a further $150 million to bushfire affected regions to prevent extinction and limit the decline of native species. This took our government's investment in bushfire recovery for native wildlife and their habitat to $200 million. So again, when I talk about thinking internationally but acting locally, this is what our government is doing for me and for my constituents for Cowper locally.

The government are concerned about the environment and continue to invest. I was very pleased to be part of the government's stance to reduce waste and increase capacity in Australia's waste and recycling industry, through the $1 billion transformation of our waste and recycling industry, and I will continue to work both here and at home to ensure that we continue to do the good work.

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