Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr President. I want to thank the government for allowing me to make this statement. I want to put on record my thanks to the government and the Labor Party for agreeing in the lower house to the amendments moved by the Senate to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2008. I know the Labor Party argued vociferously and vigorously against our amendments. They voted against them but when the amendments went to the other House they agreed. I thank them for that—not on my account, of course, but on behalf of all of those Australians who were affected by the amendments. I want to express their thanks to the government for agreeing to those amendments.