Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to make a contribution to a very important piece of legislation, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Making Marine Parks Accountable) Bill 2012. It is a private member's bill.

I note that with the allocation of speaking times I have 20 minutes, and so this is actually being run as a pretty conventional debate that no doubt in some way we would normally conceive of as adversarial. I am a bit surprised; I actually thought this would be in the section of noncontroversial. It is a very sensible piece of legislation, with some principal elements of the legislation that I would have thought would simply have been ticked off by all sides and that we would just have moved on by having a very sensible series of amendments to a piece of legislation that at the moment is causing a great deal of concern right across the Australian community—particularly for those people who are concerned about the environment and those people who are concerned about their livelihoods and their jobs, particularly in coastal communities. It is also a concern for those people in the scientific community who want to continue to maintain that Australia has not only the best fisheries management regime in the world but that we are managing our marine estate with the very best legislation.

So I am not expecting anything but support for this legislation. Perhaps I am a little optimistic, but I have never read a piece of legislation with principles that are so simply and effectively put. It beggars belief that we would even be having too robust a debate. But this is an opportunity for me to stand and explain the benefits, which I am sure you will all be agreeing on.

The member for Dawson has introduced this legislation, no doubt as a consequence of his experience; he has lived in a marine community and he knows the consequences of poor planning.