Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I must say I am rather disappointed to have heard the previous speaker. I have always had regard for Senator Siewert as being one of the few members of the Greens political party who is a genuine environmentalist, but clearly the speech she has just read was written for her by the Pew group or WWF. I have been around a long while and have seen Senator Siewert in action. Her hesitant approach to this and the fact that she read most of it shows that she clearly has no passion for what she has been told to say on this and so she trotted out all the old words in the rhetoric that the Greens go on with.

One thing Senator Siewert said that I did agree with was that it would not surprise anyone that the Greens are opposing this. Of course, the Greens and the Labor Party oppose anything that is put up by other than the Greens political party. Why? Because this dysfunctional government continues to operate because of the tainted votes of a couple of Independents and the Greens political party in the other place and on this side. So whatever Pew says, whatever the crackpot wilderness society says or whatever WWF says, the Greens just mouth that and, once the Greens say, it the Labor Party just rolls over because if it ever challenges the Greens it will be out of government and Ms Gillard will not have a job. So that is what this is all about.

Clearly neither of the previous two speakers have even bothered to read the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Making Marine Parks Accountable) Bill 2012. Senator Siewert's whole speech was about attacking the coalition for trying to put more science into marine protection. We are not opposing marine protection, Senator Siewert; we are trying to put some science into it. We are trying to get it out of the political system and trying to get it out of the clutches of that foreign oil based group, Pew, and into the hands of Australians who actually live, work and have fun on our coasts and seas.

I am not quite sure how Senator Siewert and the Greens can take much notice of the WWF, an organisation that used to have some credibility but, of course, now we hear that WWF's world leader wants to ban all trawling in Australia. 'We want to ban all trawling in Australia,' the WWF world boss says. But, hang on—WWF in Australia is taking money off commercial fishing trawler industry members to give them marine stewardship certification for their trawling in Australian waters. So, clearly, the WWF will do something when there is a buck in it for them so they can continue their work around the world but their true thoughts come out in a typical Greens political party approach: shut down all extractive industries in Australia. They have almost succeeded with the forestry industry, one of the most sustainable forest industries in the world, if not bar none. Thanks to the Greens political party and their lackeys in the Labor Party, that industry, which has employed hundreds of thousands of Australian workers, is now on its knees.

And they have started again on the fishing industry. We have seen that ridiculous decision on the Abel Tasman when Minister Burke, as fisheries minister, encouraged the five quota holders to combine their quotas and bring in a big, efficient fishing vessel to catch the quota take and then, when the boat arrives and people have spent a lot of money to bring it here, Minister Burke then, as environment minister, bans the operation that he encouraged as fisheries minister. Why? Because Ms Gillard holds her office as Prime Minister on the tainted vote of a couple of Independents and the Greens political party. The Greens political party will not stop until all extractive industries and, in fact, anything that extracts any of our national assets are stopped in Australia.

I have said before, and I say it again, to the few recreational fishing groups that still support some of the rhetoric of the Greens: don't be fooled; your senior peak body understands that the Greens are dangerous insofar as recreational fishing is concerned. The Greens political party would even go out—and this is typical of the Greens and the Labor Party—and rewrite a bit of history and hope that a bit of it sticks. We heard Senator Siewert say that under the coalition, it is alleged, these marine regions will stop people enjoying the beaches, stop them walking along the beaches and stop them having a swim in the surf.