Kerry O'Brien (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Transport) Share this | Hansard source

The Labor Party has, in fact, some sympathy with Senator Colbeck’s arguments on behalf of the government in that it is our view that this act, or indeed other acts of this parliament, contain adequate provisions for environmental assessment, determination of approvals and management of exploration programs in environmentally sensitive areas. The argument does not stand or fall on whether every single pertinent provision that Senator Brown mentions is contained in this legislation. For example, as Senator Colbeck has pointed out, aspects of the EPBC Act do apply to exploration under this legislation. We do take the view that that is a more appropriate place for that material to be dealt with. We do not think that this is the appropriate legislation which would, for example, prohibit exploration in a particular area.

The appropriate legislation would be either Commonwealth or state legislation, depending on whether the waters under the constitutional arrangements were Commonwealth or state waters. Those particular pieces of legislation would need to establish the various tenures for marine protected areas. That legislation would need to clearly spell out the prohibitions on use and the permitted use for the areas which are to be described as marine protected. Those are the premises on which the opposition will be approaching this legislation. We understand the intent of the amendments, but we do not accept the premise upon which they are based—that is, that the absence of every single aspect of the material mentioned in the amendments should be in this bill.

It is our view that there are provisions in other legislation which cover the measures which are intended to be addressed. In some cases, in terms of marine protected areas, that legislation will be beyond the reach of this parliament, because it will not be Commonwealth waters that we are dealing with. We think that, in that case, it is more appropriate that it be dealt with by the state legislation. We are not minded to support the legislation on the basis of those principles. Whilst we understand the matters being pursued by Senator Brown and Senator Milne, we do not believe that they are matters which need to be contained in the bill now before the Senate.