Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

As a Queensland senator as well as a Democrat, I am obviously very interested in any changes to arrangements regarding the management of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. It is an icon not just for Queensland but for Australia. It is an environmental icon, almost a spiritual icon in many respects, and it has been a particularly crucial iconic area for many Indigenous communities and tribes going back for millennia. I have said a number of times in this place that perhaps the largest single, positive environmental achievement of this government in its time in office is its rezoning of the marine park to significantly increase the number of protected areas and significantly improve the chances of the ecological and economic values of the park being maintained and strengthened into the future. It is one of their biggest achievements and it should be acknowledged.

One of the reasons it was so essential and important is because of the many very significant threats to the reef and to the wider marine park. Climate change, as we all now know, is a major, if not the major, threat—it is an enormous threat—to the health of the reef and the marine park. It puts an enormous amount of biodiversity at risk, it puts a lot of Indigenous cultural heritage at risk and it also puts a lot of economic flow-on effects at risk. It is a clear-cut example of the inextricable intertwining of environmental values and economic values, because, if the environmental health of the reef declines and collapses, the impact would be enormous on the economy of Central Queensland, northern Queensland and Queensland more broadly.

That is not to dispute that there were not some economic consequences for particular groups in that significant rezoning. The commercial fishing industry is obviously the group that got the most attention. It is appropriate that assistance and compensation be given to those who are affected, but we do need to look at the big picture, the broader context. To have not acted to strengthen the protection of the reef because of short-term economic costs would have led to much larger economic costs and human pain for a whole range of industries, particularly the tourism industry. But it would have affected a lot of other people and groups as well, including some within the commercial fishing industry.

I note Senator Macdonald’s comments about there being absolutely no intention to have any mineral or other exploration in or near the marine park, and that is good to hear. That being the case, I am sure the government would have no problem in supporting in the committee stage an amendment such as Senator McLucas has put forward. Indeed, in the past, Senator McLucas and I had a joint private senators’ bill in this place to do precisely that. So if it is not on the agenda and it is not going to happen—no way, never ever—it should not be a problem; we can support the amendment and it will all be crystal clear. We will not need to keep pointing to the fact that it is still being singled out on a range of resource maps as a potential area for future exploration.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Amendment Bill 2007 came from a major review of the marine park authority and the management of the marine park flowing on from the rezoning. There was, of course, a lot of controversy flowing out of the rezoning, particularly from the commercial fishing industry. I do not have a problem with people wanting to re-examine things. What I do have a problem with is the way that has happened and one aspect of the end results we have before us.

We have heard interjections from Senator Joyce or Senator Boswell—probably both. They are obviously very unhappy about the impact of the rezoning on the fishing industry, and they were quite keen to see this review lead to the authority being dismantled and being taken to Canberra to be run from the department and the minister’s office. Frankly, I find it extraordinary that Queensland senators could be advocating that management of Queensland’s marine park should be given to a bunch of bureaucrats in Canberra when we have a world-renowned marine park authority in northern Queensland. We are without doubt the world’s leader with regard to reef management and reef science. Townsville has become a reef science centre of global significance. For Queensland senators to talk about ripping the heart out of that and throwing it to a bunch of bureaucrats in Canberra—no offence to the bureaucrats in Canberra, but it is not their job—