Tracey Roberts (Pearce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We are a government that values and protects our environment, and that is why I am pleased to rise to speak in support of this motion by the member for Lingiari. The Albanese Labor government has committed an extra $262.3 million in the 2023 budget to address the chronic underfunding of Australia's iconic national parks. This is additional funding on top of the existing parks funding. The $262.3 million covers some of our most precious places, including Booderee National Park and the World Heritage listed Kakadu and Uluru-Kata Tjuta national parks. It also includes Christmas Island National Park, Pulu Keeling National Park, Norfolk Island National Park and a network of 60 Australian marine parks.

We need to act because the scale of the mismanagement and neglect that took place under the previous government cannot be understated. Sadly, that mismanagement left our national parks with broken infrastructure, out-of-date equipment and inadequate facilities. Without sufficient funding, important work like protecting threatened species is adversely affected, and the tourism industries that local economies rely on are not supported. This compromises the ability to protect some of our most precious places and the plants and animals that call them home.

The Albanese Labor government will also invest $163.4 million to save the Australian Institute of Marine Science, which, through a dedicated team of marine scientists, helps us to protect the Great Barrier Reef. Again, after years of underfunding by the previous government, they were left with mouldy ceilings and out-of-date laboratories, and with their jobs at risk.

The additional $262.3 million in funding for our national parks is a vitally important investment to make sure that we manage nature better. These environments requires staff and tourism businesses to operate, which means that funding and protecting them is also good for our economy. Under this new funding, 110 new jobs will be created, including new roles for traditional owners to work on country. The Albanese Labor government's investment will boost cultural heritage management and conservation activities; address critical infrastructure needs, including updating unsafe equipment, providing ranger housing and refurbishing rundown facilities like the Kakadu Aboriginal cultural centre; and support important programs such as the new National Seed Bank at the Australian National Botanic Gardens.

We must better protect our precious places, and better support those who manage them, to ensure that they can be enjoyed for generations to come. As a government we want to be sure that we are leaving our environment in a sound state for our children and our grandchildren. This is important to me as a parent and as a grandparent. I love our natural environment, as do many of you here, like many people in my electorate of Pearce in Western Australia, where we have some stunning bushlands, national and regional parks and coastline. It's very important.

As an ambassador for the Western Australia Parks Foundation, appointed by former governor Kerry Sanderson, I promote and raise awareness of our natural environment, particularly our national parks. Pearce has many beautiful bushland areas and more than 30 kilometres of stunning coastline. We have the Yellagonga Regional Park, the Yanchep National Park and others that I know are highly valued by our community and by visitors.

The Albanese Labor government is investing more in our parks, which is in stark contrast to the previous government. In 2019 the Liberals and Nationals promised $276 million in funding for Kakadu, yet they delivered just a fraction of that—$17 million. As at 31 March 2023, Labor had delivered $50.31 million and also contracted another $2.96 million. We have already delivered important infrastructure, and, importantly, we are consulting with traditional owners to advance new tourism developments. We value our natural environments and we want to protect them now and into the future.

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