Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

In 1990, as one of the Goldman Environmental Prize recipients, I handed President George Bush Sr a letter, at the White House, calling for him to endorse the Madrid protocol. America was holding out at the time. I like to think that the Goldman Environmental Prize winners had some influence on the United States going on to support the Madrid protocol, which is the vital document, by the world agreed, to protect Antarctica as a zone of peace and science. So I am very pleased that we are now adding extra Australian legal strength to the protection of Antarctica, following ratification of the annex to the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty 1998.

We must see this in light of the threat to Antarctica. There are now over 40,000 tourists going to Antarctica each year. There is an increasing scientific establishment, there are many more countries involved and the threat of introduced organisms and the unwanted invasion of species into the Antarctic ecosystem is increasing every year. So this legislation is to be welcomed. I might add that the threat to Antarctica at the moment from human action is cataclysmic. In addition, climate change and ocean acidification—and, indeed, the whaling activity of the Japanese, in contravention of the Antarctic Treaty—are just parts of a suite of unprecedented threats to the whole of the Antarctic ecosystem which will in turn affect every ecosystem on the planet, including our own continent.

The first amendment which I shall move is to recognise the World Heritage value of the Antarctic. There is no argument about that. But, once again, the opposition are saying that they support it but they will vote against it. They support the intent of it, but they will vote against their own intent on a simple matter like that. The second group of amendments requires the Minister for Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts to use the powers available to protect whales in the Antarctic. Again, the opposition say they are in support of that but they will vote against it. Senator Macdonald said that the opposition support the intent of that but they will vote against it. This is a historic failure of the opposition. I do not want to gainsay the government here; this is a great opportunity for the government to support these amendments. But I note the failure of the opposition, through 13 years of government, to do the right thing and to recognise the obvious intrinsic values of the Antarctic continent bioregion and its oceans—that is, being not only of World Heritage value but the greatest World Heritage area that we have on this whole planet. It is the great white continent, this world park, which deserves recognition. I look forward to the government taking a different point of view and supporting these amendments so that they can pass the Senate today.