Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

In regard to the proposed Commonwealth South-West Marine Parks:

(1) The Commonwealth's proposed boundaries will be released to the public in the first half of 2012.

(2) The implementation of the proposed boundaries is a two phase process involving the declaration of a marine reserve network followed by development of a management plan for the network.

Once final marine reserve network proposals have been released, there will be a separate process to formally proclaim the marine reserve networks under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). This includes:

(3) The Western Australian Government was consulted in the preparation of the draft boundaries and has provided a written submission during the public consultation stage. In its submission, the Western Australian Government confirms its support for marine reserves and its commitment to working with the Australian Government on marine biodiversity protection. For details of the submission, contact the Western Australian Government.