Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I agree with Senator McLucas when she says that the Great Barrier Reef is an icon which needs to be protected, has great tourism value, provides many jobs and underpins the tourist industry in North Queensland. I accept all those things and have no argument with it. My argument is that this barrier reef is a multi purpose park, and it always has been a multi purpose park. What has been happening, and what GBRMPA did, is completely dishonest and left a trail of misery and woe. I do not think I have ever seen Senator McLucas with her shoulder to the wheel trying to sort it out, but it has taken Warren Entsch, Teresa Gambaro, Senator Nigel Scullion and me about two years to come to some sort of arrangement that will help the fishermen, the fish processors, the outboard motor people and the bait and fishing tackle shops, who have all been impacted on. No-one needs to go down that track. It should never have happened, and I hope to goodness it will never happen again. It is all right to stand up here and advocate the preciousness of the reef—no-one disagrees with that—but you do not have to leave a trail of misery, disaster, bankruptcies and broken marriages to do that. You can do that quite within the bounds of sensible discussion and reasonableness, which we never saw from GBRMPA.

The Representative Areas Program was put forward by GBRMPA. In 2001 GBRMPA decided to fence off parts of the reef to preserve biodiversity—I have no argument with that—and protect samples of 70 different bioregions. This became the RAP, or the Representative Areas Program. Up to that stage seven per cent of the park was protected in green zones. GBRMPA wanted 25 per cent protected. They went around and told everyone that that was what they wanted. They came into my office and told me, ‘We want 25 per cent protected.’ I can remember saying to them—I can almost see it—‘If you are going to put the biodiversity zones in, put them in the areas where no fishing is taking place.’ They said, ‘Yes, we’ll consider that, Senator Boswell.’ In real terms they took 33 per cent of the marine park, which is a total of around 70 per cent of the reef itself. This program was a subterfuge and became a disaster. I will tell you why, Senator McLucas. You know, as well as I do, that GBRMPA put forward to the government that this was going to cost between $500,000 and $1.5 million, but if you really stretched it out it was going to cost $2 million. What has it cost?