Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

As is their usual wont, the Greens are not prepared to accept any other view than their own. As Senator Ludwig has quite rightly said, there are a number of views that relate to this particular matter. The coalition is very concerned that the consideration of any lock-up of Australian territory, whether it be terrestrial or marine, goes through a proper process of consultation and also considers the views of all, including the science. The Greens, in their desire to rampantly lock up anything that is available, completely and utterly ignore the world-leading fisheries management and marine management systems that we have in place in this country.

If the Greens are in any doubt about the quality of those systems, they need only read the Fishery status report 2010, which was released only two weeks ago and which demonstrates quite clearly the strong recovery and strong situation that marine stocks and fisheries stocks in Australia's territorial waters are in. That is because of the strength of management of our systems within Australia.

So the desire of the Greens to lock up huge swathes of Australian territory, either terrestrial or marine, in contravention of the real science rather than the concocted science we so often see placed on our plate by the Greens, is not supported by the coalition. We are in support of a proper consultative process that provides for the views of all rather than just the few. Therefore, we will not be supporting this motion.

Question put:

That the motion (Senator Bob Brown's) be agreed to.

The Senate divided.      [15:50]

(The Deputy Speaker—Senator Parry)

Question negatived.