Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing, Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Hansard source

The National Party always saw the review of GBRMPA as the vehicle for destroying the Marine Park Authority and rolling back the protection of the Great Barrier Reef.

On 25 March 2006 the Courier-Mail reported that the Howard government was planning to reduce the marine protection boundaries of the Representative Areas Program and abolish the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority as an independent agency. I am pleased to say that neither of those two things has occurred. I am pleased that GBRMPA will remain a statutory authority. Labor, along with many others, played an important part in preventing the destruction and the demolition of GBRMPA. But there are still aspects of this bill that are troubling. The bill replaces the Great Barrier Reef Consultative Committee with a non-statutory advisory board. It also removes the requirement for specific representation of the interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. I am concerned that there may not be proper representation from Indigenous communities, and there are amendments to ameliorate that effect. I am also concerned that Queensland play its important role in finding the direction for the management of the Great Barrier Reef. I call on the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources to make a commitment to a genuine partnership with the Queensland government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and a genuine engagement with all of the industries that are dependent on a healthy reef. A place at the table must be found for everyone.

We are pleased the government is establishing a five-yearly outlook report for the Great Barrier Reef. The minister for the environment has stated that a regular and reliable means of assessing the protection of the Great Barrier Reef will be provided through a formal outlook report that is tabled in the parliament every five years. This report will cover the management of the marine park, the overall condition of the ecosystem and the longer term outlook for the Great Barrier Reef. It will be peer reviewed by an appropriately qualified panel of experts appointed by the minister. I welcome that report. I note the minister will be responsible for any future decision to amend the zoning plan, and any such decision will be based on the outlook report and advice from the authority.

I note also the minister’s commitment that engagement with stakeholders on the development of a new zoning plan will be improved and the process made more transparent, with comprehensive information being made publicly available through the process. This will include the rationale for amending any zoning plan, the principles on which the development of the zoning plan will be based, socioeconomic information and a report on the final zoning plan and its outcomes. In addition, each of the two public consultation periods will be increased from one month to three months. The Labor Party certainly welcome the extension of the public consultation period. It is important there is integrity in the process, and it is important there are ongoing commitments to better protect the health of the Great Barrier Reef. That is why I call on the government, and particularly Queensland senators, to join Labor in opposing oil drilling and exploration near the Great Barrier Reef.