Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Roads and Regional Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In speaking to this motion on the 40th anniversary of the Ramsar convention I want to highlight the critical importance of wetlands in Australia but particularly in the Gippsland electorate, where we have two Ramsar listed wetland sites—Corner Inlet and the Gippsland Lakes. With this anniversary of the convention, it is timely to reflect on the mission statement:

The conservation and wise use of all wetlands through local, regional and national actions and international cooperation, as a contribution towards achieving sustainable development throughout the world.

The term 'wise use' is one which appeals to me personally. 'Wise use' has at its heart the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands and their resources for the benefit of humankind. I make that point because it is central to my view of natural resource management, particularly when we are talking about vast holdings of public land, like we have in Gippsland, and the complex environmental systems at play in areas such as the Gippsland Lakes and Corner Inlet.

While the Greens in this place advocate a policy of lock it up and leave it, I believe in practical land management and engaging the local communities. I believe we need to have a balanced approach with a focus on working with our local communities and listening to those communities, not inflicting policies from the cities. Our wetlands are a treasure trove of biodiversity, but they are not museum pieces. They certainly need active management and we need to get amongst them to fully appreciate what is available to us.

Many of our reserves of public land in Gippsland are overrun with feral animals and introduced weeds, and the environmental features which led to the decision to establish a protected area in the first place have been severely compromised by lack of action on the ground. When we are talking about wetlands, the impact of foxes and cats in particular has had a devastating impact on a wide variety of bird species. The underinvestment in programs to reduce the impact of noxious species is a fault of both state and federal governments. I do not lay the blame before one side of politics over another. I believe there is a critical need for ongoing Commonwealth funding to state agencies and volunteer organisations, which play a critical role in practical environmental management.

To make my point, I cannot go past the current government's failure in relation to Landcare. This government stripped $11 million out of the forward estimates for Landcare but can still find room in the budget for $13 million worth of climate change advertising. Given a choice between propaganda and propagation, there are no surprises here—the government has opted to preserve itself rather than preserve the environment.

I recently attended the Yarram Yarram Landcare awards and spoke to people who are making a difference every day through their stewardship of their own land and the work they do as volunteers on public land. Their work in the catchment areas is undoubtedly providing benefits to the Ramsar listed wetlands of Corner Inlet, and I thank them on behalf of all Gippslanders for their willingness to make such an important contribution. In this the 40th anniversary year of the Ramsar convention, the current federal government should be investing more in supporting the volunteers who are keen to protect and enhance their local environment, and it should begin by reinstating the money it has stripped from Landcare to help employ facilitators to maximise the value of the volunteer effort on the ground in regional communities.

It might surprise some opposite that the National Party is advocating such a strong position in relation to the Ramsar convention and wetland areas, but it is the people of regional Australia who have been at the forefront of practical land management over many generations and we will not sit back and allow ourselves to be painted as being somehow anti-environment when it is our communities doing the hard work on a daily basis, getting our hands dirty and actually getting out there and supporting the environment.

For people to value our wetlands they need to be able to visit them, and so I support the development of infrastructure and facilities that allow humans to gain a close-up appreciation of our fragile wetlands. Again, we need a balanced approach. This is not to suggest there should be open slather on development; it is to make the point that local communities, which are often called on to be the custodians of such assets and provide a great deal of the practical environmental work in regional areas, should be able to benefit commercially from our wetland areas. There are economic opportunities to be found in our world-class wetlands but the lack of facilities on public land is a major issue for the Gippsland tourism industry. Wise use of our wetlands should involve the development of facilities such as boardwalks, viewing platforms, environmentally appropriate accommodation and other infrastructure which allows locals to benefit from the jobs which exist in ecotourism. It is an opportunity that we have failed to capitalise on in Gippsland, and the federal government should be working in partnership with the state government to support such activities in the future.

I recently wrote to both the state and federal environment ministers in relation to the Rotamah Island Bird Observatory, on the Gippsland Lakes. I will give the House a more fulsome account of the island at some stage in the future, but suffice it to say that there is an opportunity there for both state and federal governments to work in partnership with the passionate members of my community to achieve some great environmental outcomes.

Briefly, in the time that I have left, I would like to reflect on this government's lack of commitment to the Gippsland Lakes and their Ramsar listed wetland areas. While the federal government commits over $200 million over a five-year period for the Great Barrier Reef, it has committed just $3 million for the Gippsland Lakes, which the locals regard as the Great Barrier Reef of the south, and this funding expires this year. There are many individuals, community groups and landholder organisations that are passionate about our lakes and rivers and are ready to do their share of the practical work that is required. It is a pity that the same level of passion does not exist in the ministerial offices in Canberra. (Time expired)

Sharon Grierson (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to mark the 40th anniversary of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance. I welcome the member for Gippsland's motion and I celebrate the achievements in my electorate, in the Australian community and internationally that have been brought about because of this treaty. In Australia we have 64 Ramsar listed sites, and internationally there are over 1,900 wetland sites. Australia, like 159 other nations, is a signatory to the Ramsar convention. The treaty provides a framework for the recognition and protection of wetland ecosystems and the plant and animal life that relies on them. Like this motion, the treaty recognises:

… that wetlands constitute a resource of great economic, cultural, scientific, and recreational value, the loss of which would be irreparable …

The United Nations Environment Program World Conservation Monitoring Centre estimates that six per cent of the world's land surface is composed of wetlands.

In my electorate, the Hunter estuary is a Ramsar listed wetland and includes Kooragang Nature Reserve, Ironbark Creek, parts of the Hunter River and the Hunter Wetlands Centre. Dotted with melaleuca swamp forests, freshwater reed marshes and mangrove creeks, the Hunter Estuary is a living environment, providing a temporary home for migratory waterbirds during their seasonal migrations and a more permanent, or semipermanent, ecosystem for the breeding of fish. The estuary is also a place for recreation, for amateur fishermen and women, for birdwatchers and for families canoeing or picnicking in the wetlands. As a result, the Hunter Wetlands Centre has become a hub for ecotourism in the region, attracting more than 100,000 visitors each year and contributing to the environmental, cultural and economic prosperity of the city. In fact, in 2005 it won the international Ramsar conservation award for education. In both 2007 and 2009, it won the Hunter Tourism Award for ecotourism.

But, since European settlement and the encroachment of urban developments on wetland ecosystems, there have been tumultuous changes in landscapes, and it is estimated that over half of Australia’s wetlands have been destroyed. Through habitat change, pollution, overexploitation, the introduction of alien species and climate change, our wetland ecosystems and the biodiversity that they sustain continue to be at risk. A 2009 snapshot Ramsar study report into the management of Australia’s Ramsar listed wetlands to the end of 2007 revealed serious ecological and management issues at protected wetlands.

That is why, as a government, we have invested in Australia’s wetlands, building partnerships between government and local volunteer organisations to protect, promote and preserve wetland ecosystems and biodiversity. That is why we have provided almost $2.5 million for educational facilities at the Hunter Wetlands Centre since being elected in 2007, as well as $550,000 to support conservation management and ecotourism at the Hunter Wetlands Centre and over $16,000 for volunteer groups who work at the centre. Through this funding, Green Corps, for example, have supplied environmental training and work experience for young people aged 17 to 20 who have worked to restore wetlands in the Hunter estuary.

It would be remiss of me, in the context of this debate, to not acknowledge the tireless efforts of one of my constituents, Christine Prietto, in promoting the Ramsar convention in Australia and helping make the Hunter Wetlands Centre the national success story it is today. In 2001-02, Christine led the process for the listing of the Hunter Wetlands Centre under the convention, building on the work of Kevin McDonald, Brian Gilligan, Max Maddox and probably lots of other people I have forgotten. Christine has since played a major role in promoting public awareness of the convention and now serves on Ramsar’s Scientific and Technical Review Panel. The success of the Ramsar convention, both nationally and internationally, owes a great deal to the expertise and passion of people like Christine.

I commend this motion, and I thank all those people around the world who tirelessly work to protect our natural environment. Over the past 25 years in my electorate our local volunteers, our environmental leaders and our activists have put in an outstanding effort. My daughter is nearly 29, and I recall being a volunteer at that stage in the wetlands myself. I congratulate them for returning an area earmarked to become landfill to its natural state as a wetland ecosystem rich with biodiversity. To all of them: happy 40th anniversary and congratulations on a job well done.

Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to speak on the 40th anniversary of the Ramsar convention. I acknowledge the contribution of the member for Newcastle. As someone who has two daughters who attended the University of Newcastle, adjoining the Newcastle wetlands, she did not mention the emblem of Newcastle and the bird that recognises that—that is the mosquito. But I digress. It is a wonderful attraction in Newcastle.

Ramsar is the only global environmental treaty which deals with a particular ecosystem. The convention's mission is:

... the conservation and wise use of all wetlands through local, regional and national actions and international cooperation, as a contribution towards achieving sustainable development throughout the world.

In the Parkes electorate there are four significant wetlands, which cover collectively 163,000 hectares. The Gwydir wetlands—that is, the Gingham and the Lower Gwydir—make up 823 hectares around 60 kilometres west of Moree and are considered an inland terminal delta, as four wetlands make up the site. The Gwydir wetlands are special because they provide breeding and feeding habitat for large numbers of colonial waterbirds.

The Macquarie Marshes is probably one of the most recognised sites in my electorate. It is located 100 kilometres from Warren. It has international importance and is one of the largest remaining inland semipermanent wetlands in south-eastern Australia. It is a major waterbird breeding area and an important refuge for a large number of other wildlife species.

Narran Lake is a very spectacular nature reserve of 5,531 hectares situated approximately 75 kilometres north-west of Walgett and 50 kilometres north-east of Brewarrina in the north-west of New South Wales. Narran wetlands are among the highest ranked sites for species richness, number of breeding species and total number of birds.

The Paroo River wetlands, making up 138,304 hectares, have two components—the 71,133-hectare Nocoleche Nature Reserve, which is approximately 180 kilometres west of Bourke, and the 67,171-hectare Peery component, which is located within the Paroo-Darling National Park, around 240 kilometres south-west of Bourke. These support a large number of threatened plant and animal species.

At the moment the wetlands in my electorate are absolutely magnificent. They are completely saturated, and the wildlife has returned. Indeed, tourism is flourishing in western New South Wales at the moment, largely because of the introduction of water into these areas. I would like to make some points with regard to the intention of some people in this place and in a wider area to play the role that nature has played for thousands of years. Over the last few years we have seen the government buy up millions and millions of dollars worth of water in the name of protecting the environment. The futility of buying water and storing it in dams—I might say by relative newcomers to the system, many of whom have been there for only the last 40 or 50 years—was shown last summer, when Mother Nature took things into her own hands and, with no help from mankind, replenished those wetlands in a cyclical nature, as she has done for millions of years. So we now have our dams full of so-called environmental water ready for the next so-called flush to the wetlands.

But these wetlands are ephemeral. They go dry when it is dry and they flourish and come to life when it rains. The arrogance of mankind in trying to take on the role of nature to control these wetlands is futile and making very little difference to the health and overall nature of these sites whilst significantly impacting on the wealth and productivity of— (Time expired)

Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I came into this place tonight to give unqualified support to the honourable member for Gippsland's private member's motion. Having listened to his contribution, I now have to change that and qualify it a little bit. I still support it in general but I have to say on point (2)(b), the need for ongoing Commonwealth funding to other agencies, that I agree that we do need ongoing Commonwealth funding but I would make the point that the mission of the Ramsar convention is the conservation and wise use of all wetlands through local, regional and national actions and international cooperation. It has to be funding at all levels. The honourable member did stage a bit of an attack. I can attack back, because the previous Howard Liberal government did not provide funds for Ramsar wetlands. The member was not here, but it is certainly a party that the member for Gippsland is associated with.

On the 40th anniversary of the Ramsar convention, I want to turn my comments to the points of agreement that we all have here. I thank the honourable member for putting this before the House. There are two things I want to say. One is that the official name of the treaty is the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat. I think its original title has been lost, but that reflects the original emphasis on the conservation and wise use of wetlands primarily as habitats for water birds and also for migrating birds. It has just come to be what we call Ramsar. That is what we refer to it as.

In my area, I have WetlandCare Australia, which is a national organisation. It is based in Ballina. It operates out of Ballina but does national work and indeed is involved in international cooperation as well. It has worked for a number of years to put together a national project of some significance, particularly for coastal wetlands up and down the east coast of Australia. I work to support that because I know as members we want to work to support things that directly benefit our electorates. That is our job. But in supporting this project, which would cover 20 wetland areas in New South Wales and in Queensland, I knew that it would directly benefit my area and other areas. I have worked with WetlandCare Australia for a number of years and made sure that they got meetings and that they got to talk with ministers. They did a whole lot of work with departments and experts that they were able to do themselves. I can report that they were successful in securing a $2.5 million grant to work on this major project over 20 areas. The WetlandCare Australia general manager is Nicci Carter. She has been a great advocate for that organisation. The CEO, Ben Copeman, and project manager, Adam Gosling, are committed people. They will work to make sure this is implemented.

The coastal 20 wetland restoration project involved WetlandCare working in partnership with communities, government and industry to undertake restoration of 20 important wetlands in north-eastern New South Wales and South-East Queensland. One of the things that I said at the launch of that was that, given there were so many environmental organisations and programs, in my early days as the member for Page I decided that WetlandCare Australia was an organisation that I wanted to throw my support behind because of the significant work it was doing. There are so many environmental issues that sometimes we have to decide on a focus and go for it. For me it was wetlands for a whole range of reasons. Our coastal wetlands face increasing pressures from climate change and from the twin pressures of rising sea levels and changed rainfall patterns. Also, they are really the lungs of our country and they are the breeding grounds particularly for our fishing, both recreational and commercial. (Time expired)

Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also rise to support this motion and I commend the member for making it a part of this day's business in this parliament. The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance was signed in the small town of Ramsar near a significant wetland in Iran on 2 February 1971. Since then the convention on wetlands has taken its name. The Ramsar convention holds the unique distinction of being the first modern treaty between nations aimed at conserving natural resources. The original Ramsar convention's intention was to protect migratory waterbirds and their habitats. Clearly, this was a unique idea at the time given most people had no real concern about habitats beyond their own borders. The convention has now been broadened in its scope to include the protection of all wetland biodiversity and the wise use of all wetlands, and that includes an understanding of human use of those wetlands.

Australia was one of the first countries to become a contracting partner to the convention and it designated one of the world's first Ramsar sites, on Cobourg Peninsula, in 1974. Australia's 64 Ramsar sites now cover around 8.1 million hectares including freshwater, marine, permanent and ephemeral wetlands in every climatic zone.

Eleven of Victoria's wetlands are listed as Ramsar sites. They include the Barmah forest and the Gunbower forest in my electorate of Murray. The Barmah-Millewa forest is the largest river redgum forest in Australia, covering 66,000 hectares of floodplain and is of special value for maintaining the genetic and ecological diversity of the region because of its size and variety of communities. The Barmah forest also has the most extensive areas of the now-rare Moira grasslands in Australia.

Providing environmental flows to Ramsar and other sites in Australia has always been a priority for both the New South Wales and Victorian governments. The first environmental flow into the Ramsar listed wetlands from the Murray and into the Barmah-Millewa forest was in 1979. In 1993 the Murray-Darling Ministerial Council allocated an annual 100 gigalitres to the Barmah-Millewa forest and its Ramsar listed wetlands. This environmental flow has been released from the Murray into the forest since then in 1998, 2000, 2002, 2005-06 and 2010. The environmental flows are not new therefore to modern thinking, but what is now realised is that environmental flows are often best managed with regulators and other works and measures. It is not a case of flooding over the banks of a river and hoping for the best. The tragedy is that over the years local Barmah-Millewa forest experts—and they have indeed been local people—have been sacked and replaced by inexperienced and often poor managers of the environment drawn from the public service of New South Wales and Victoria. The community fora once guaranteed that there was a decent outcome. Now we are seeing some terrible outcomes. The tragedy is that, despite the commitment of significant environmental flows to the Barmah-Millewa forest and the Ramsar-listed wetlands, which include nearly 27,000 hectares of freshwater wetlands, they have been experiencing the worst blackwater events ever recorded. This has been a consequence of poor forest and wetland management in the area. The biggest blackwater events on record are a consequence of a lack of any cold burns for at least 40 years and a lack of any grazing when it was noticed that the vegetation loads were the largest on record and would be a danger if there were hot, shallow waters flooding into the forests. When that did occur we had enormous deaths of a whole range of biota including crayfish and endangered species, Murray cod and other fish. Indeed, even the vegetation has been killed.

This has not been the only tragic event in the Barmah-Millewa forest as a result of the incorrect or the misunderstood management of the environmental flows. In February in the summer of 2009 there was in fact a theft of environmental water. It occurred when a number of regulators were broken open by some misguided individuals who thought that not enough water had been released at that time into the forest. Regulators were smashed and locks were smashed, resulting in a flood of about 850 megalitres into the forest. It was a misguided and tragic attempt. Unfortunately, some 30 kilometres by five kilometres, or 60 square kilometres in all, of forest and wetlands were affected. Waterbirds attempted to breed but with no hope of fledging their offspring, given the short, sharp nature of this flow and, of course, the blackwater event that followed. There was also a tragedy in 2006, with 10 per cent of the birds in the major bird-breeding event killed when environmental flows were cut off too soon and delivered too late into the forest. (Time expired)

Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The 40th anniversary of the Ramsar convention reminds us of the significance of conserving wetlands through wise use and management. This is particularly important for migratory shorebirds, which fly right around the world every year in remarkable journeys of endurance and persistence. They depend on every link in the habitat chain remaining intact. Australia, China and South Korea are signatories to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance. Australia also has bilateral agreements on migratory birds with both China and the Republic of Korea.

Unfortunately, some nations have failed to live up to their obligations to protect shorebird habitat. One such threat involves the Yellow Sea and the preservation of its tidal flats to ensure the conservation of the remaining shorebirds in our flyway, the Australasian-East Asian flyway. With a sustainable future for our shorebirds under threat, I believe it is vital that we take action and honour the commitments we have signed up to at the international level. At future meetings concerning these bilateral migratory bird agreements, Australian delegates need to ask their counterparts what is being done in their countries to ensure sufficient appropriate habitat remains to ensure that birds can successfully stage their migration.

The Australian government should also advocate for the issue of shorebird habitat to be listed as a standing agenda item at each Conference of the Parties of Ramsar, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention on Migratory Species, the Bonn convention. I urge the Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities to request and lobby for the issue of reclamation of shorebird habitat in the Yellow Sea to be included as a major agenda item on the program for the next International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources world congress, to be held in the Republic of Korea in late 2012.

As a quote from the book Invisible connections: why migrating shorebirds need the Yellow Sea highlights:

Like the shorebirds that rise into the air to cross continents and oceans, so too we must all rise to the challenge—to secure a future for the birds, the tidal flats and the living world which we all share.

Moving now from the global to the more local I want to talk about the Murray-Darling Basin, as some others have done before me. The Murray-Darling Basin contains 16 internationally significant Ramsar listed sites, which are hotspots for unique wildlife: the Macquarie Marshes, Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth are all Ramsar listed; in fact, the Lower Lakes complex is the biggest Ramsar site in the Southern Hemisphere.

It has been clear for more than a generation that the way water is used in the Murray-Darling Basin is destroying the river system and dismantling the environmental foundations underpinning community wellbeing. In November last year, the Murray-Darling Basing Authority released a report filling an important gap in our knowledge about the economic benefits of bringing the basin back to health. Written by leading academics from the CSIRO and Charles Sturt University, the environmental benefits reportoutlined a way of estimating the economic value of the environmental benefits that flow from the basin and its rivers. A key conclusion within the report is that restoring the Coorong, an internationally significant wetlands system at the end of the Murray River, from poor environmental health to good health is worth $4.3 billion to Australians.

An Australian Conservation Foundation report takes the methodology and source data from the report and expands on it to ask, 'What would an improvement in the health of all the Murray-Darling Basin rivers be worth to Australians?' Their analysis concludes that restoring the entire Murray-Darling Basin towards health is worth $9.8 billion to Australians. The costs of inaction if we do not return water to the Murray-Darling river system include ongoing costs of salinity across the basin, loss of dairy farms in the Lower Murray, blue-green algae outbreaks, blackwater events and lost revenue to nature based tourism operators relying on healthy rivers. We are at risk of killing the goose that lays the golden egg. Australians care about the health of this river system, as demonstrated by the current email campaign by concerned Australians anxious that this parliament puts the science first. A key concern in these emails is the environmental values of this great river system. I hope that the opposition, and the National Party in particular, stops running interference on the measures needed to better protect the river system.

Kirsten Livermore (Capricornia, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.