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

So the Greens are the extreme ones in this debate, apparently, and yet Senator Boswell has just accused the minister for the environment of being a dictator. He clearly does not understand the act. He acknowledged that he was not paying attention when his side of politics put through the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, which set out what is actually a very consultative process for bioregional planning and for marine protected areas. It is an extremely useful process which, at the time, his side of politics—who are not always known for their environmental credentials—thought was a good process in terms of consultation and the process you go through to establish bioregional planning processes in marine protected areas. But now he is saying, 'No, we don't think it is.' But if you actually look at the process you see that it is a highly consultative process that takes years.

I have been involved in marine protection and these issues for 25 years. I have been involved in a lot of consultation and I have been involved in the south-west marine planning process since about the mid-1990s. Now we have finally got a draft plan on the table. That is 15 or 16 years. How much longer do the coalition want to be able to consult on marine protected areas? I will tell you: forever—because they do not want them. This is what this is about: they are scared of evidence based planning, which is what happens with marine bioregional planning and when you put marine reserves and marine protected areas in place. It is evidence based planning, and that is why we so strongly oppose this particular bill. What the coalition want to do is make this a political process and try to never get marine protected areas in place. Senator Boswell ignores the science consistently. For years the coalition have been saying, 'No, we don't want marine protected areas. No, we don't want marine no-take areas,' because they are trying to imply that all marine protected areas are no-take areas, and that is blatantly not true.

For years the coalition have been saying, 'There is no science around marine protected areas. There is no science around the role marine no-take areas play.' The science is well and truly in about the role they play in protecting our marine biodiversity. Also on the ledger is how much marine biodiversity we have lost and the parlous state of our coral reefs around this planet—the global importance of protecting those reefs in Australia. Now that the science is much better documented, they cannot rely on that argument anymore, even though they keep rolling it out. Now they want to come in here and try to use a political process to stop marine protected areas, because they know the science is in, they know the evidence is in, they know that communities support it. Go and talk to West Australians. You will clearly see that the majority of Western Australians support marine protected areas and marine reserves.

Go and talk to my community in my home state of Western Australia. Talk to the people in the south-west, which I do all the time. There is overwhelming support for the south-west bioregional area. There is over ­ whelming support for marine protected areas, because West Australians understand the science and the roles of marine protected areas. They are overwhelmingly committed to Ningaloo Marine Park. They are overwhelmingly supportive of the zoning of Ningaloo. They want to see their precious marine environment protected. The south-west regional area, from the south-west of WA over into South Australia, has more unique species than the Great Barrier Reef. There are species there that are found nowhere else on the planet. It is highly important, and the government has gone through a very consultative process with industry, with stakeholders and with the community. And they are still going through it. This thing about our not talking to the fishers is complete nonsense. The fishers have had extra-special access around, for example, the fishing gear assessment process. The community still have not seen that report, but the fishing industry have, rec fishers have; they have seen it. Here is the coalition saying that there is special consultation with—I am going to mention the word, Senator Boswell—Pew. I am going to mention—wait for it—Imogen Zethoven. I will go back to the issue of claims that the Greens are extreme. You should see Senator Boswell light up and press his button every time you mention that name in estimates. How many hours have the coalition, and Senator Boswell in particular, wasted in estimates asking ridiculous questions about times that non-government organisations have actually dared to ring the government?