Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the chair and acknowledge her work in this inquiry and also thank all members of the committee who were part of it and showed such a great interest in and passion for what Australia is contributing in Antarctica. I also thank the secretariat, particularly Fran Denny and Sam Thompson, as the chair referred to.

But the really important part of this, from my point of view, was the recommendation regarding the capacity for inspections, particularly in relation to Australia's national security interest. I think that was very important in the recommendations that we made, in relation to inspections and the increased interest of other nations in Antarctica and for Australia to maintain the focus on the agreements that we have in Antarctica.

I was very pleased, particularly as the coalition government commissioned the RSV Nuyina, to see that craft, to see its amazing capacity and capabilities, and to see the great passion that all of the staff and scientists that we met had. I think the Nuyina is just fantastic and is a credit to everyone involved, as to not only the design but also how it will operate ahead. It brings renewed opportunity, as we will see. I think we'll see the quality of the research that will come out. We were fascinated by the krill, by the CO2 sequestration that's contained in krill, by the massive amount of krill in Antarctica and by the fact that our scientists have been able to actually have those onsite and observe them in such a fashion.

That multidisciplinary research is so important with the Nuyina now. I think there's huge opportunity there for Australian scientists and for the new scientists coming through. It gives them a fabulous platform to work with and from. I think it will encourage even more young people to be involved in Antarctic type research. So that's fantastic.

But I do certainly strongly support the idea of a second resupply vessel, as this became very apparent to us. There's the need for Nuyina to focus on that research capacity and for there to be also the capacity to provide the support needed. The resupply of the other bases in the vicinity was raised with us repeatedly. I think the resources on Nuyina certainly should be focused on research capability.

Like the chair, I want to thank, again, all of the scientists and everyone who made time to actually contribute. I'd encourage people to read the report, particularly as to some of the concerns around national security and inspection processes. I thank everybody involved. I thank the chair extensively for the work that she put in. I hope that the recommendations will be considered very seriously by the government of the day, because they were very sound recommendations. As I said, I was particularly interested in, and I think we did a very good job on, the recommendations themselves. Earlier, I referred to recommendation 3, which is:

The Committee recommends that the Australian Government increase the frequency of its inspections of other Antarctic Treaty Parties' Antarctic stations over 2025-26 and beyond.

And I cannot stress this strongly enough:

The Australian Government should consider other methods of inspection such as satellite imagery and drone use.

I think these are very important in relation to our responsibilities under the treaty but also our national security interests. So I would just like to bring that well and truly to the forefront of the consideration of the government. I think this was a very strong and sound recommendation that the committee made. I thank the chair for this indulgence, and I thank the chair of the committee for all of her work.

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