Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move—

That this House:

(1) notes that in 2012, following a comprehensive and rigorous process, the then Labor Government declared 40 marine parks in Commonwealth waters, creating the world's first and largest comprehensive national network of marine parks;

(2) notes with concern that there is increasing pressure on Australia's marine environment, as indicated by frequent and severe bleaching of coral reefs across Australia's northern waters, extensive and unprecedented dieback of mangroves, and the loss of large areas of kelp forests in southern Australian waters;

(3) notes that Australia's marine environment is the most biologically diverse in the world according to the 2010 Census of Marine Life, with our oceans spanning tropical, temperate and sub-Antarctic waters, and where at least 33,000 marine species have been identified (many of which are found nowhere else on earth);

(4) notes that Australia is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and as such is required to both conserve as well as sustainably utilise its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ);

(5) notes the economic opportunity that marine parks bring regional communities as evidenced by long standing marine parks in Australia, including the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park which is worth over $6 billion to the Queensland economy, and others including Ningaloo Marine Park, the Great Australian Bight, Lord Howe Island, Solitary Islands Marine Park and Maria Island National Park;

(6) notes the clear evidence that marine parks play an important economic role in accelerating the recovery of depleted fisheries, and that the long term net effect on fisheries of increased resilience and sustainability from highly protected marine reserves is positive;

(7) notes that in the 1990s the then Coalition Government put in place a systematic approach for declaring a comprehensive, adequate, and representative network of marine parks in Australia's EEZ, and proceeded to declare 22 marine parks in Commonwealth waters;

(8) notes with concern that:

(a) in December 2013 the incoming Coalition Government suspended Labor's marine parks from operation by re-declaring the parks in order to set aside their management arrangements and commencement date, pending the conduct of a politically motivated and unnecessary review; and

(b) after almost 3 years, these 40 marine parks have not been implemented, existing in statute only—leaving 5 of Australia's 6 marine regions with little to no protection at a time when the threats to Australia's valuable and important marine environment are increasing;

(9) notes that in the May 2016 budget the Coalition Government committed to completing the re-development of the management plans for the new parks within 12 months;

(10) notes that in the recent consultation by Parks Australia, over 50,000 submissions were received from around Australia, including from more than 5,000 recreational fishers, calling for the reinstatement of the marine parks and their high level marine national park zoning, without further delay or loss of protection;

(11) notes that the Expert Science Panel of the Coalition Government's own review recognises both the extensive science that went into the development of the marine parks developed by the Labor Government and the scientifically proven benefits of marine national parks;

(12) notes the Bioregional Advisory Panel of the Coalition Government's own review recognised the extensive consultation that has occurred in developing the marine reserves developed by the Labor Government, stating that there was in fact a considerable amount of 'consultation fatigue' expressed by many stakeholders;

(13) notes the increasing move by other countries to put in place large and highly protected marine parks in their EEZs, including action taken by the United States, Palau, Chile, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and, most recently, the declaration in October 2016 by 24 nations, including Australia, of the Ross Sea marine park in the Antarctic high seas; and

(14) calls on the Coalition Government to bring the Commonwealth network of marine parks that were declared in 2012 into operation without further delay, and with no loss of marine national park protection.

We have been on the brink of introducing the first national network of marine protection since the Labor government completed a careful and widely consultative process in 2013. The reason for finally establishing a system of strong and comprehensive national marine protection could not be clearer or more compelling. Across the globe and here in Australia, oceans have already suffered significant damage and marine life is under threat. We have seen very significant loss of species. We know that fragile marine ecosystems like the Great Barrier Reef are being degraded by the impact of human activity. Around the world, we have witnessed catastrophic environmental disasters in the form of oil spills and we have marked the savage depletion of fishing stocks.

If we keep going along this path without change, without radical improvement to marine protection and conservation, the social, economic and environmental harm will be profound and, in some cases, irreversible. Everyone will lose. Our oceans and the marine life with which we share this planet and on which we depend will be subject to ever steepening pressure, harm and degradation if we do not act, and act decisively. That is a proposition we have understood and accepted for some time. That is the shining imperative behind the Save Our Marine Life campaign.

Since 2013, the Abbott-Turnbull government has stalled progress on reform in favour of a questionable review process which has resulted in two work products, the expert scientific panel report and the bioregional advisory panel report. The expert review has comprehensively endorsed the process that created the network proclaimed by the Labor government. It has endorsed the science, the economics and the consultation. It confirms the value of marine park national park zones, which offer the highest value protection, within a framework of varying representative protected areas. But the report of the bioregional advisory panel has proposed some changes that defy the science and will substantially weaken marine protection in key regions.

In my part of the world, this would mean moving the sanctuary away from the head of the incredible Perth Canyon, where the nutrient upwelling is strongest. This is a feeding ground for the endangered blue whale, and it is the main biodiversity hotspot between Ningaloo Reef and Kangaroo Island. The review also proposes removing inshore sanctuary protection at Bremer Bay, a zone of importance for endangered Australian sea lions and one of only three calving sites for southern right whales. This wind-back is to accommodate the expansion of a trawling operation that ABARES has estimated is worth a grand total of $4,700 per annum. As the Ocean Science Council of Australia has said, the 'overall emphasis of the review' appears to have largely focused on modifying the zoning by 'eroding the critically important zones of high protection to zones of lesser protection', but without any scientific basis and, according to ABARES, minimal economic benefit.

Reform is not easy, and the last thing we need is to start undermining or walking back the vital pieces of this network. I represent a fishing community. I marched through the streets of Fremantle a few weeks ago as part of the 68th annual blessing of the fleet. I have close friends whose families depend on fishing, and I also know how important diving, surfing, sailing and tourism are to the local and wider Western Australian economy. Freo people, like people right around this island nation, feel connected to and responsible for the sea. As Tim Winton has said, it is part of their birthright.

On this issue, all our social, cultural and economic interests are aligned. So let us not go about creating false divisions on this issue. Let us not pretend that a person who fishes for their livelihood, for their table or for fun is somehow different from a person who loves the sea, who wants to protect biodiversity and ensure that future generations live in harmony with the ocean and all its life. They are the same person. They could just as well live in Albany, Hobart, Darwin or Maroubra as in Spearwood or North Fremantle.

Shaping and implementing this network of marine protection is not a contest; it is a shared endeavour. Through painstaking consultation, evidence and scientific expertise, the Labor government secured a network that reaches around this continent and represents at last a basis on which we can live in harmony with the great blue lifeblood that surrounds us. It is open for the Turnbull government to deliver on that reform and to share in that legacy achievement, but it requires them to show some steel. The bioregional advisory panel report makes recommendations that rip and tear at the fabric of a network that must be allowed to operate as a whole; that is what the science tells us. And it will be a howling failure if, by ignorance of the science or by some calculation of narrow political benefit, this government caves in and carves back carefully chosen and scientifically formulated marine protection. Reform is not easy. This reform has been hard won. Let's seize the opportunity to look after our oceans while we still have the chance.

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Fremantle for raising his 14 points, but I point out that they are nothing but an effort to hijack the outcomes and recommendations of the recently completed Commonwealth Marine Reserves Review as an achievement of the previous Labor government. I would like to point out that this current government is proud of its record, which builds on the achievements of the Howard government, in extending the protection of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and creating the world's first network of representative marine protected areas in the southeast.

Speaking specifically of my electorate of O'Connor, I am extremely proud to see the outcomes of the recent review process which will see more targeted and greater protection of marine parks along the entire southern coastline of Western Australia. I would like to refer specifically to the Bremer Commonwealth Marine Reserve, which, under the previous government, offered marine national park zone protection status only to a small portion, that being the inshore leg of a vast marine reserve extending to depths of greater than 1,000 metres. With due respect to the member for Fremantle's claim that the 2012 declarations followed a comprehensive and rigorous process, I query how then have the bioregional panel and scientific expert panel both reached the conclusion that the protection should be expanded by some 70 per cent, giving greater protection to an extra 3,000 square kilometres of the Bremer Commonwealth Marine Reserve.

I also refer to the same Labor declaration that relocated another marine park in my electorate some 70 kilometres to the east and, on the basis of their 'comprehensive and rigorous process', placed parts of the new reserve over nothing but sand. In fact, the consultations leading to the 2012 declarations appear to be anything but comprehensive and rigorous, with some key stakeholders completely omitted from the process. I have documentation from one key stakeholder stating that, when the draft marine park boundaries were announced in 2011, they did not affect their fishing enterprise, so they relaxed and got on with business as usual, fishing sustainably off the south coast of my electorate. However, in July 2012, the boundaries were changed, new maps were released and this key stakeholder, the only fishing enterprise in this newly impacted area, had not been involved in any consultations, nor were they advised of the process. They related to me:

We were never contacted by the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities.

They asserted:

… the consultations were rushed ... It was like a rubber-stamping exercise.

This is a truly modern fishing enterprise, one that fishes sustainably and provides valuable data to both the state Department of Fisheries and the Western Australian Museum. In fact, when questioned by Senator Richard Colbeck at Senate estimates in 2013, SEWPaC representative Stephen Oxley acknowledged the department:

… did not have the capacity to go, and identify and make communication with every individual fisher.

SEWPaC also admitted they had done very little research on the marine environment to the southwest corner of Western Australia. The recent Commonwealth marine review independent bioregional panel, on the other hand, did consult extensively with stakeholders to arrive at the management plans that would support the biodiversity values of the area better than those previously gazetted in 2012 and better support fish stocks into the future. I am proud to have conducted my own extensive consultations within my electorate of O'Connor and have fed back the views of my communities, stakeholders and conservation interests to the federal government. My outcomes concur largely with those reached by the independent investigations of the bioregional advisory panel and the expert scientific panel.

I note that the member for Fremantle acknowledged the economic value of marine based tourism but pointedly avoided mentioning the fantastic outcomes that this Commonwealth marine review process will have for the Bremer area of my electorate. This is possibly because it does not fit with rhetoric peddled by the Labor Party and organisations like GetUp! who refuse to acknowledge that the coalition government is committed not only to reviewing the science around previous declarations but to responding, as it has done in the instance of the Bremer Commonwealth Marine Reserve, to the recommendations and actually increasing the protection of this marine reserve by over 70 per cent compared to the previous government's recommendations.

The Commonwealth Marine Reserves Review recommendations have also taken that unprecedented step of locking out all possible oil and gas exploration. On top of this, Ministers Hunt and Frydenberg have committed an additional $100,000 to exploring the recommendations made by the bioregional advisory panel to consider expanding the protections to the west of the marine park.

In closing, I dispel the myth proposed by the member for Fremantle that the current Commonwealth Marine Reserves Review recommendations only underpin the findings of the previous government and note that the process towards these enhanced protections, based on thorough stakeholder consultation and sound science, is on track for completion by mid-2017.

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to support this motion. I thank the member for Fremantle for raising a very important issue. Australia's marine network is under unprecedented pressure, particularly around the Great Barrier Reef, with unprecedented levels of coral bleaching which is going to, if it is not abated, affect the domestic tourism industry and so many industries that rely on the health of the reef for people to make a living. There is little doubt that Australia is blessed with some of the world's most beautiful ocean environments. Whether it is summer trips to the beach with the family or our fierce protection of our ocean wildlife, Australians place extraordinary value on all things connected with the ocean. Given our strong feelings, Australians expect a high standard from their governments when it comes to management and conservation of those marine assets.

The Labor Party has an exceptional record of protecting Australia's ocean environment. The Whitlam government established the nation's first marine reserve to protect the Great Barrier Reef; Bob Hawke and Michel Rocard worked together to turn the Antarctic into the world's largest conservation area; and the last Labor government established Australia's marine park network, the largest network of marine protected areas anywhere in the world. In developing these marine reserves, Labor spent four years establishing the science, conducting more than 250 public consultations and receiving more than 750,000 submissions from Australians regarding ocean conservation. It puts to shame the claims made by the previous speaker that Labor did not consult when it established these marine reserves—750,000 submissions speak for themselves.

As noted in the motion, according to the 2010 Census of Marine Life, Australia's marine environment is the most biologically diverse in the world, with our oceans spanning tropical, temperate and sub-Antarctic waters where at least 33,000 marine species have been identified. It is also important to note that Australia is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and is required to conserve as well as sustainably utilise its exclusive economic zone.

In our marine environment, we have much to be proud of, and it is a source of pride that warrants proper protection. Unfortunately, this Liberal coalition government has set aside the management plans for the Commonwealth marine parks so that it could conduct a review—a review that, as I mentioned, the Labor Party already conducted when we were in government. And now, after almost three years, the 40 marine parks have not been implemented, leaving five of Australia's six marine regions with little or no protection despite the fact that the government made a promise to implement those marine reserves within 12 months.

Also noted in this very thorough motion is that, in recent consultation by Parks Australia, over 50,000 submissions were received from around Australia calling for the reinstatement of the marine parks and their high-level marine national park zoning without further delay or loss of protection. I have had numerous representations from constituents in my electorate. I have received visits here in Canberra from people who are concerned about the fact that this government is stalling and delaying the ultimate declaration of these important marine reserves The government has turned its back on a great number of Australians that are in support of protecting our marine environment and its biodiversity.

Labor understands the importance of protecting our environment, particularly our marine parks, for current and future generations as well as supporting sustainable, well managed industries. Only Labor has proven that it can deliver both. With these goals in mind, I add my voice to this motion and the call for the Turnbull coalition government to bring the Commonwealth network of marine parks that were declared in 2012 into operation without further delay and with no loss of marine national protection.

Sitting suspended from 13:30 to 16:00