Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I beg your pardon. Whichever minister it was, she was from Queensland. The point is that we cannot rely on those sorts of interventions to save the Great Barrier Reef. There needs to be a focus on how we can truly save the reef and there needs to be greater effort put into the science of trying to protect it. Such issues are still not being adequately considered, but they need to be. We must also bear in mind again that we need the best possible management for this area. Taking the requirement for Aboriginal representation and involvement out of the act, off the authority, with no statutory requirement for Indigenous involvement, not only undermines Aboriginal people’s management, identification and ownership of these areas but also does not allow for the best management practice possible for the reef. So not only are we undermining Indigenous Australians but we are undermining the best possible management of this reef. The Greens do not support the part of the bill that takes out Aboriginal involvement and the requirement for representation on the authority. We believe the government needs to amend this bill so Aboriginal involvement is required in the management of the Great Barrier Reef.

The Greens, therefore, will be supporting the Democrat amendments to this bill. I hope the government has very serious second thoughts about what it is doing by cutting out the statutory requirement for Aboriginal involvement in the management of the reef and about the message that it is sending to Aboriginal Australia in saying and implying that the people of this region—the 70 groups that are involved—do not have the skills or expertise required to be involved in management of the reef. The government so undervalues Aboriginal Australia that it has cut out their statutory involvement in the management of the Great Barrier Reef.