Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that the World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef is the planet's greatest living wonder;

(2) further notes that it supports 64,000 jobs and contributes an estimated $6 billion to our economy; and

(3) welcomes the Government's record $500 million boost for Reef protection which will:

(a) invest in a $444 million partnership with the Great Barrier Reef Foundation;

(b) spark new and innovative investment in Reef protection measures;

(c) deliver on projects which are proven to boost the health of the Reef;

(d) improve water quality;

(e) tackle the crown-of-thorns starfish; and

(f) work with traditional owners on this vital project.

When one thinks about what makes this planet so special, it's the thought of the great natural wonders spread across its surface. From the Grand Canyon in the United States to Mount Everest in Nepal, humans are in constant awe of the power, beauty and spectacle of the truly incredible things Mother Nature is capable of.

In 1997, American news service CNN compiled its list of the Seven Natural Wonders of the world—there are just seven examples around the globe that stand alone as magnificent examples of nature, offering both beauty and power. The list followed in the footsteps of previous well-known lists such as the Seven Wonders of the World which featured the most significant examples of man-made magnificence—structures such as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Great Pyramids of Giza.

Each time any person or organisation creates a list of the most important, unique natural wonders, the Great Barrier Reef is always sure to factor. Stretching some 2,300 kilometres along the tropical east coast of the great state of Queensland, the reef, as we affectionately know it, is the size of a mountain range and as vibrant as a carnival. It is the world's largest coral reef, home to thousands of species of coral, and fish, birds, whales, dugongs and plankton. It is an integral resource for not only Capricornia and Queensland but also the national economy.

While I'm proud to represent the fishers, tour operators and moteliers et cetera of my electorate who rely so directly on the Great Barrier Reef, the story is a much broader and compelling one across the reef's whole footprint. For thousands of years Australians have relied on the bounty provided by the reef. Modern Australia is no different. A 2017 report conducted by Deloitte Australia placed the value of the Great Barrier Reef as a not-to-be-sneezed-at $6.4 billion and estimated its effect on the workforce to be in the value of 64,000 direct and indirect jobs. These are huge figures, figures that must not be ignored. I'm pleased to know that they are not being ignored by this coalition government.

This is a government that, unlike that of those opposite when they were in power, identifies issues and deals with them in a pragmatic manner. We don't just get sad and signal our virtue. We get in and address the real issues. Among the reef's greatest identified threats are run-off pollution and the crown-of-thorns starfish. The recent announcement of $500 million towards addressing these threats was met with open arms recently by two groups in my local community—tourism operators and farmers. The latter may surprise you, but it is our farmers and graziers who have made huge inroads into addressing run-off. Since the Howard government's reef package of well over a decade ago natural resource organisation and landholders have been working together to lighten their impact on the reef. Simple projects like putting in extra water points, fencing off creeks and utilising more-sophisticated spraying techniques make a big difference to what and how much makes its way downstream and onto the reef.

We know that managing run-off is key to keeping water quality high and the crown-of-thorns numbers low. These projects also have the added benefit of helping landholders better manage their land, in turn driving further economic benefit. Increasing ground cover means not only less dirt runs away but more moisture is held within the soil—grass can grow more quickly and more stock can feed from the same area. Using more-sophisticated techniques for herbicides or fertilisers not only means less chance of these chemicals running off onto the reef but also means landholders are able to use less to do more, saving more money while increasing output.

This means that while these policies are addressing the real factors for the reef's health they are also improving the productivity and resilience of our rural communities. It is an approach very different to those opposite, who have effectively shut down our rural communities for the sake of the reef, placing ideology ahead of a pragmatic solution. The greatest threats to the reef are being addressed by this government, and with $500 million on the table I am confident we can continue to see improvements. I wholeheartedly endorse the government's strategy to address the perils facing one of the world's seven natural wonders and look forward to getting home to enjoy its tropical waters.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is there a seconder for the motion?

Ben Morton (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Our magnificent Great Barrier Reef, the only living thing on the planet visible from the moon, is a living natural resource that should be cherished and protected, but this coalition government is failing to protect the reef from every angle. We know that the biggest threat to the Great Barrier Reef is climate change, but what have we seen from that side of the House? We have seen not only that they have undone what Labor did when it was in government but inaction since then, and we've seen emissions rise by 1.4 per cent in the last year. The government's own emissions projections show that Australia will not even come close to meeting our obligations under the Paris agreement.

Under this government's weak emissions reduction target of the National Energy Guarantee there will be very little large-scale investment in renewable energy for the entire decade of the 2020s. Carbon pollution data confirms pollution is rising and will continue to rise under this government's policies all the way to 2030. This government's budget saw not one measure to tackle climate change, not a single cent spent on new climate change policy. You can't be serious about saving the reef without a serious plan to tackle climate change, but Prime Minister Turnbull is too busy pandering to the conservative climate change deniers to take action.

The reef is also an economic issue. Tourism employs around 225,000 Queenslanders, both directly and indirectly. The Great Barrier Reef alone supports 64,000 full-time jobs, and these people rely on a healthy, thriving reef. Deloitte Access Economics estimates the value of our greatest natural treasure, the Barrier Reef, is $56 billion. In addition, the report estimates the reef contributed $6.4 billion to the Australian economy in 2015-16. For communities that rely on tourism for local jobs there will be immense economic consequences if the reef deteriorates. In fact, we've already seen a drop-off in tourism numbers.

One way to protect the reef is through marine parks, but Australia's network of marine parks has been gutted by this government. No matter which way you look at it, the government has now spent four years engaging in the largest removal of area from conservation protection in Australia's history. The Coral Sea has gone from being the jewel in the crown of the Commonwealth marine parks, protecting the eastern side of the Great Barrier Reef, to now being a haven for long-lining and trawling, the same method used by the supertrawler.

People in my electorate are very concerned about the environment, marine parks and the reef. More than 350 people have emailed me about marine parks in the past few months alone, and Labor have serious concerns about the Great Barrier Reef funding announcement in the budget. The government wants to give itself a pat on the back for that $500 million in the budget, but $444 million of that is in a grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, and that process has been chaotic at best. The extent to which the Great Barrier Reef Foundation was properly consulted and prepared for an increase in funding of this scale is not clear. After all, it hasn't turned over more than $10 million per year in the last two years, and going from $10 million to $444 million is a massive increase in scale.

The minister repeatedly confirmed during Senate estimates that the foundation did not submit an application, and a competitive process tender was not followed. How is this possible for one of Australia's greatest natural assets? It is not clear that the foundation is even able to cope with a grant of this size, and there is no plan—and there was no plan when the $440 million grant was announced. That is why Labor are making a freedom-of-information request about the funding provided for the Great Barrier Reef Foundation. We want to protect the Barrier Reef. It's globally significant, it's a natural wonder, and we should put in our best efforts.

When Labor were in government, we introduced a carbon trading scheme and we also set up the marine parks—the largest marine park network in the world, and it's something that I was very proud of. It's quite tragic to see this government rip that progress apart and then sit on its hands for so long. We have seen serious bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef over the last couple of years. The reef itself is in danger from climate change. It's just tragic for the entire world, really, that this government isn't taking more action. I strongly urge the members on that side to rethink their position on this and take real action on climate change.

Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There's no doubt about it; the Great Barrier Reef is the greatest living natural wonder on our planet, and I'm fortunate enough to represent a very large portion of that natural wonder, a very significant amount of which the previous speaker was talking about in relation to the impacts of bleaching.

Rather than just having read some of the stuff that you see being released by the nay-sayers, I actually have a lot of experience on the ground. A lot of my businesses are heavily reliant on the health of the Barrier Reef. It doesn't do anybody any favours, neither us as managers nor businesses that rely on it, when you get this nonsense that's being continually perpetuated by groups that are out there pushing their own agendas. They're creating very, very colourful videos about the fact that the reef is dying, when nothing could be further from the truth. But they're doing it, playing to their own audiences. I tell you now, they would never, ever play those videos up in my electorate, because we know the facts.

You've got the likes of the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Wilderness Society, the WWF and others pushing these things. The whole thing looks more like a fundraising campaign, because they're playing to very gullible audiences in metropolitan areas, most of whom have never, ever seen and do not understand the facts relating to the reef. But they do it as a very effective fundraiser, as they race out there with their underpants on the outside and capes on, saying, 'We're going to save the reef.' The reef does not require saving. It requires very good management. We are seen already as the best reef managers in the world, and it's important that we continue to be the best reef managers in the world. I say that because I have a real strong interest in the reef, as does my electorate. More than 64,000 jobs and about $6.4 billion of our economy—a very significant part of our economy—are reliant on a healthy reef. It's the biggest economic driver in my electorate; it's one of the biggest employers in my electorate.

I have to say I get very, very angry when I see these groups out there constantly talking the reef down. They can be talking about the challenges that we have, certainly. We talk about coral bleaching—it's not something we do here in Australia that causes the coral bleaching. It comes from hot currents that come across the waters from South America. It's what happens in China, in India, in the US, in the Northern Hemisphere, that impacts on that. We should be making noises about it, but we're doing a hell of a lot of good work here in Australia mitigating those challenges. We're not able to stop it, until they start dealing with climate change issues in the Northern Hemisphere, where our large polluters are, but we certainly can help to manage it and show others. We're doing that by getting heat-resistant corals. This is some of the work that's been done from the $444 billion—close to half a billion—that's been recently announced.

I also noticed that there was some criticism regarding the Great Barrier Reef Foundation. The foundation is a very credible organisation. It's highly respected and has had an outstanding history in relation to the handling of government funds. It's not going to be spending the $444 million; that money will be disbursed out to those wonderful people that are doing the crown-of-thorns starfish work and a whole range of other credible organisations. The foundation is basically just holding that money and dispensing it out to others, and it's certainly more capable to do that than most. It's very unfair and unreasonable that it should be criticised—it's a highly reputable not-for-profit organisation. I think it makes a lot of sense that it's able to do that.

I just want to say again that we have to be very, very careful when criticising. Every time we start criticising, we're talking it down, and we are then allowing others to make assumptions that what is being published is true; it is not. We are great reef managers. People come looking to us for advice from around the world. A lot of the campaigns out there against the reef are actually campaigns against fossil fuel, and they see the reef as collateral damage. I applaud the work that we've done, and let's continue to make sure that we do so.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sir David Attenborough has travelled to every corner of the globe, but if you ask him to name the most magical place on earth, he responds: the Great Barrier Reef. The reef is an extraordinary ecosystem that contains largest collection of coral reefs—400 types of coral and 1,500 species of fish exist in the reef. There is no other World Heritage property which contains this level of biodiversity. The environmental significance of the reef simply cannot be overstated. But the reef is also an economic asset for the nation. Deloitte have placed the value of the reef at some $56 billion. They measured its contribution to the Australian economy at $6.4 billion in 2015-16, supporting some 64,000 jobs that are a direct result of the Great Barrier Reef, particularly in the tourism sector. The reef is a cornerstone of our tourism economy, and not just in Far North Queensland. It also plays an important role in our national economy, because people who visit Australia visit it, in part, because of the Great Barrier Reef, but they also spend money in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and other parts of the nation.

This motion is almost ironic, given the government's record on the Great Barrier Reef, because it is this government that wants to lock in the largest removal of conservation areas anywhere in the world, in history. The Labor government instituted Australia's marine park network, comprising the largest network of marine protected areas in the world. This government has plans to strip away swathes of protected areas from these marine parks, making Australia the only country anywhere on the globe that's actually reducing the protection of its oceans.

While the government awarded a $444 million donation to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, it must be said that no application was received and no competitive tender process was undertaken. The Great Barrier Reef Foundation is a reputable organisation, but its previous revenues, going back to 2015 of $9.6 million, and in 2016 $8 million, indicate that it is far from clear if the organisation simply has the capacity to cope with an investment of this size. It's symbolic of the government's chaotic management of this World Heritage listed ecosystem. The fact is this mismanagement hasn't just been bad for the environment; it is also letting down the communities that rely on the Great Barrier Reef for their income. We need a real plan to protect the reef and to protect our oceans. Of course, part of that has to be taking action on climate change, because that is the biggest threat to the ecosystem of the Great Barrier Reef. That's why Labor's committed to taking real action on climate change, with a commitment, for example, to 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030, with a commitment to actually reduce our emissions. That was happening up to 2013, but now, of course, under this government's farcical version of energy policy, where they can't even agree with themselves after more than five years, we don't have an energy policy in this country, and emissions are rising again on this government's watch. The fact is that the budget in May didn't deliver a single dollar on new climate change policy.

So I want to conclude by echoing again the words of Sir David Attenborough, 'Do we really care so little about the earth upon which we live that we don't wish to protect one of its greatest wonders from the consequences of our behaviours?' This much is clear: our reef does need protection, and this government simply isn't up to the job of providing it. That requires a comprehensive plan on climate change. It requires a comprehensive plan to reduce run-off into the reef. It requires a comprehensive plan to support the tourism sector in Far North and North Queensland.

George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's interesting that the previous speaker, the honourable member, highlighted the government's half-a-billion-dollar investment in the reef, which we've just made to actually reduce run-off and fund further research into the reef. Contrary to reports from GetUp! and the Greens, the reef isn't dead and it's not covered in toxic sludge. It is very much alive, and it's being enjoyed by thousands of Australians and thousands of international tourists, who haven't been driven away by the extreme Greens' attacks on the reef's reputation. According to a Deloitte report, the Great Barrier Reef is credited with supporting 64,000 jobs directly and indirectly. In all the regions bordering the Great Barrier Reef the reef creates more than 19,000 tourism jobs. That's locally. As a comparison, the resource sector also creates about 19,000 jobs, but that's just in the Mackay region alone, with a further 12,000 created in the Fitzroy or Central Queensland region. The coal industry in Queensland generates thousands upon thousands of jobs. The reef is also responsible for some of those jobs, because workers move to our part of the world to take up jobs that flow from mining dollars, but they also come because of lifestyle, having fishing, diving and island-hopping opportunities. The reef also creates 680 local jobs in the fishing industry, a further 2,889 in recreational industries and 895 in scientific research.

I had the great pleasure of visiting the Australian Institute of Marine Science in the north of my electorate last week. It's Australia's tropical marine research agency, heavily involved in research based around the reef. The CEO there, Dr Paul Hardisty, showed me some of the projects they were working on, including research to find and breed hardier, more resilient corals that can stand different environmental conditions. The ultimate goal would then be to seed the reef with new and hardier coral after an impact causes coral loss. As we've seen through the history of the reef, the most destructive forces that affect the coral come from cyclones and crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks. As I said at the start, the Liberal-National government recently provided half a billion dollars for reef protection, including a $444 million investment through the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, a very reputable organisation that has been slandered a little bit in this place—it's bizarre, actually. The foundation has worked very closely with the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

Successive governments, both state and national, have invested billions of dollars in reef protection, because management of the reef is important—it's a national icon. However, its iconic status is the very reason why you get these extremists out there, using it as a weapon to fight an ideological agenda. GetUp! and the extreme green groups, for instance, make claims about water run-off from the Carmichael mine. Apparently, that is water run-off that's going to kill the reef—even though the mine is hundreds of kilometres and a mountain range away from the coastline, and even further away from the nearest reef. We do things differently up in North Queensland, I'll admit that, but we can't actually run water uphill—not naturally, anyway. The same extremists, supported by Labor and the Greens in this place, and supported by the taxpayer-funded ABC, use the reef to beat up the mining industry and also our farmers, particularly cane farmers, at every opportunity. They accuse miners of dumping toxic sludge on and digging up the reef, and they accuse farmers of covering the reef with chemicals and sediment—none of which is actually true. The extreme green groups use fake news to link farming with outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish on the reef. They don't mention the outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish over in WA, where there is no sugar cane farming, apart from a small section up in the top end. The truth is that mining and the GBR have existed for a very long time, and will exist for a long time to come. Farming and the GBR have existed for a long time, fishing and the GBR have existed for a long time—thousands of years—since the Indigenous people were doing it. It's easy for inner-city socialists to lecture people in north Queensland and tell them to shut down their industries that put food on the table. But the royalties and taxes go into the pockets of government, who actually build the stuff in the capital cities that those inner-city socialists want.

Under the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd governments, we had the extreme greens calling the shots, locking up a million square kilometres of some of the most under-fished waters in the world. On the one hand they're telling us they need to stop the GBR and the Coral Sea from being overfished; on the other hand they're telling us that the lock-out won't have a big impact because no-one goes fishing there. You can't have it both ways. If Labor and the Greens supported tourism on the reef, they'd support a tax change to open up superyacht industries. I look forward to them showing support for that, given they're going to be given an opportunity very soon.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Queenslanders are lucky to have almost on our doorstep one of the seven wonders of the natural world, the Great Barrier Reef. While we know how precious the reef is, we also know how fragile it is. 2018 has been named the International Year of the Reef. This is a campaign to raise awareness of how each of us can choose to reduce the impacts of warming ocean temperatures and of the broader climate change effects on reef ecosystems worldwide. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority will be hosting and facilitating events for this campaign throughout the year, and I'm sure the member for Herbert will be involved with that.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority is an important body, established by the Whitlam Labor government in 1975. Its purpose was and continues to be to properly manage the marine park area and protect its biodiversity for future generations. For the last 40 years, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has done just that, and I thank the authority for its skilled and strategic service. It has been recognised internationally for its management of the marine park—so I was completely flummoxed when the Turnbull-Morrison budget announced that a $444 million grant to boost reef protection would be awarded to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation and not to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. Of course, I'm supportive of endeavours to protect our Great Barrier Reef. The reef's importance is beyond doubt, for our natural heritage, and for our tourism sector and the jobs associated with that, but any allocation of federal money should only be made with due diligence and full transparency, and with the national interest in mind, especially when this is the largest donation the Australian government has ever provided.

During Senate estimates, it was revealed that the Great Barrier Reef Foundation did not submit an application for the funding. A competitive tender process was not followed, and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority may not have even been aware of the funding boost as recently as a week before the announcement. The government still has some questions to answer about this $444 million funding allocation. The Great Barrier Reef Foundation employs six full-time members and five part-time members. The revenue of the foundation for the previous two financial years was a mere $9.6 million and $8 million. The foundation itself has described this grant of $444 million as like winning the lotto.

In defence of the government's decision to make this grant, the environment minister reportedly said, 'The foundation has a strong board with a cross-section of eminent individuals from the academic, business and science community.' The board is chaired by a former chairman of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Dr John Schubert AO. Other board members include a former chairman of Goldman Sachs, a former president of the Business Council of Australia, a former CEO and managing director of Suncorp, other members with banking and corporation experience, as well as some scientists. However, in the past few weeks one member of the board of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, Stephen Roberts, has stepped down while a criminal investigation is underway over a suspicious capital raising for ANZ in 2015. Mr Roberts was a former director of the Australian Bankers' Association.

So we have more questions for this government and we're not getting the answers. An FOI request has been lodged to find out what discussions the government had regarding the funding to the Great Barrier Reef foundation, and why work of this scale, which would ordinarily be overseen by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, has been outsourced to this foundation.

The Turnbull government has been disappointing in almost every respect, but their lack of action on climate change is arguably the most disappointing and will create the most long-lasting damage for our children and grandchildren. Prime Minister Turnbull famously said in 2009, 'I will not lead a party that is not as committed to effective action on climate change as I am.' We know that climate change is the biggest threat to the Great Barrier Reef. Fragile coral reefs have been described as the canaries of the sea. They're the first to signal an impending larger problem. Coral bleaching can be the first sign of wider destructive global warming. Yet there is not a single cent in the 2018 budget committed to tackling climate change.

The Turnbull government is a disgrace when it comes to looking after the environment. Since they took office in 2013, carbon emissions have risen six per cent. Compare that to six years under Labor, where emissions dropped 10 per cent. This Turnbull government stands for nothing. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to look after our precious environment. As President Macron of France said, 'There is no planet B.'

A Shorten Labor government will prioritise tackling climate change. We'll encourage investment in renewable energy. We'll cut emissions by 45 per cent by 2030. We'll have zero emissions by 2050. We'll commit to 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030. In this motion before the chamber we have a long list of speakers from those opposite saying the reef is not in danger; however, aren't we great for giving half a billion to a small organisation.

Trevor Evans (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Great Barrier Reef is a remarkable natural wonder. It's breathtaking and spectacular. I've been very privileged to visit it before. It makes up in total about 10 per cent of the world's coral reef ecosystems. It stretches almost 3,000 kilometres, almost the distance from Brisbane to Melbourne and back again. It's one of Queensland's greatest landmarks and one of Australia's most beautiful natural environmental treasures.

The long-term protection and conservation of the Great Barrier Reef is critically important, and it is essential that it be preserved for future generations. That's why I and so many people in Brisbane were delighted that this year's federal budget made an additional investment, Australia's largest ever investment in the reef, of more than $500 million. This new funding is on top of the $2 billion that's already been allocated under this government to protect the reef.

In areas like conservation actions speak louder than words, so I'm proud that this government is doing more, investing more, funding more programs, than any other government in Australia's history. This record extends a long track record of support and protection of the Great Barrier Reef by former federal Liberal governments. It was, after all, the Fraser Liberal government that proclaimed the first section of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in 1979, and it was the Fraser Liberal government again that nominated the Great Barrier Reef for World Heritage listing, leading to the World Heritage Committee placing it on the World Heritage List in 1981. The Howard government brought in the Great Barrier Reef Region (Prohibition of Mining) Regulations 1999 to prohibit mining in areas just outside the Great Barrier Reef region, falling outside the marine park. And it was also the Howard Liberal government that extended the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in 2000 to include six new sections right along the coastline of Queensland that were previously missing out on the park's protection status. That added almost 1,300 square kilometres to the park.

When this coalition government took office in 2013, we inherited a situation where, sadly, the Great Barrier Reef was on the UN World Heritage Committee's watch list, basically because Labor was proposing four sites there for the dumping of dredge spoils. The coalition put a stop to the dredge sites, and, happily, the Great Barrier Reef was then taken off the UN's watch list. That's the environmental record of action of which this government is rightly proud.

Of course I'm pleased that this government is bringing in the next generation of marine parks, including new marine parks in the Coral Sea adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef. Once this government has finished this work, Australia will have one of the largest networks of marine sanctuaries around the world. I noted the comments of the earlier speaker the member for Grayndler. Where he is wrong in his assessment is that Labor never could bring the different stakeholders together. They didn't adequately base their initial proposals on the science. It was mostly politics and talk, rather than action—no results. This government is actually getting that job done. We've actually brought the stakeholders together and based it on the science, and therefore we will have these new marine parks very proudly as part of our environmental heritage when it comes to the Great Barrier Reef and marine parks.

I spoke in my maiden speech about my love for and connection with Australia's landscapes and environments. The Great Barrier Reef includes more than 2,900 coral reefs of different shapes and sizes, 600 islands, 300 coral cays and about 150 inshore mangrove islands. These sorts of landscapes and seascapes right around Australia, including the Great Barrier Reef, provide some of the most spectacular scenery and marine ecosystems on the planet.

I want to draw out the fact that over $100 million of the new funding announced in the budget will go specifically to scientific research, to invest in cutting-edge scientific technologies that will build more resilient coral, to adapt and deal with some of the global pressures, including the heat and light stress that the Great Barrier Reef is currently subject to. Like reefs all around the world, the Great Barrier Reef is under pressure. That's why it's important that our good work in Australia in reef restoration is shared internationally, to help some of our neighbours in the Asia-Pacific region to tackle this global challenge.

This federal budget contained very welcome news for those of us who want to see our natural environment protected for future generations, as only a Liberal government has proven it can do. Conservation is inherently a conservative thing. Hopefully this record investment in the reef by the federal government will inspire even more Australians, including philanthropists and groups, to work together and build on the united efforts being made to protect and conserve the reef for generations to come.

Cathy O'Toole (Herbert, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I stand here proudly as the member whose electorate is situated right on the Great Barrier Reef. The jobs, the tourism, the economy and the wonders that the Great Barrier Reef provides to my community clearly demonstrate that there is arguably no other entity that creates such diverse economies whilst being incredibly spectacular. I am immensely proud that one of the greatest wonders of the world is located, as I said, on my doorstep. So I must stand in this place and fight to protect the Barrier Reef from the Turnbull government.

I note the member for Capricornia's first sentence in this motion reads 'that the World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef is the planet’s greatest living wonder'. The question then must be asked: why are the member and her government determined to undermine and kill this great natural wonder? The Turnbull government is responsible for the largest removal of heritage listing in the entire world, and this is happening on our Great Barrier Reef. This government is responsible for removing and unwinding protections for the Great Barrier Reef, and it is putting at risk more than 70,000 jobs and billions upon billions of dollars that flow into the North Queensland economy.

Labor is the party that protects the reef, and Labor will always be the party that fights for the reef. On top of removing vital protections, the Turnbull government have also given almost half a billion dollars to an organisation without any tenders, without knowing how many staff work at the organisation and without the organisation itself even asking for the funds. In Senate estimates, the Department of the Environment and Energy could not explain how or why $444 million is being allocated to one organisation, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

The budget for the Great Barrier Reef Foundation will be increased by 45 times. Their revenue for 2015 and 2016 was $9.6 million and $8 million respectively. The foundation has only six full-time members and five part-time members, who have described this grant as 'like winning the lotto'. Almost half a billion in taxpayers' money should not be likened to winning the lotto for grant recipients. They should have prior knowledge, they should be invited to compete for that funding and it should be done in a transparent way. It is rare and surprising funding for one organisation with only six full-time staff. It begs the question: how will they manage such an influx in funding? Yet the Turnbull government is proposing to give that funding in one payment. This brings a whole new meaning to 'a fish out of water'. The cavalier attitude to the granting of $444 million taxpayer dollars without a public grant process, an open and transparent process, a competitive process or consideration of whether the authority, rather than the foundation, could have carried out this work shows arrogance and a complete lack of understanding of the importance of the Great Barrier Reef by the Turnbull government.

I think everybody can, and will, agree: something certainly smells fishy. And that is why federal Labor is making freedom of information requests into the Turnbull government's discussions regarding the funding to be provided to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation. Senate estimates have—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 12:01 to 12:15

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time for this debate has expired.