Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, Senator Bilyk, they will hand it all to the states. That is the concern. Soon after the Abbott government came to office they began rushing through environmental approvals, including for the Abbot Point coal terminal along the Great Barrier Reef. The government disallowed the endangered-community listing of the River Murray from the Darling to the sea. We have a whole host of issues where there is no environmental record from a minister who does not know the environment very well, if he does not know the difference between a Tasmanian tiger and a Tasmanian devil.

Those opposite went against all reason and all advice and sneakily had the world's largest marine reserve system reproclaimed to undo the management plans that gave them effect. They also began the handing over of environmental approvals to the states. That is a real concern, because we will end up with the states having control of some of our best icons and some of our best attractions that we have in this country for tourism—things like the Great Barrier Reef. Mr Abbott wants to hand over the Great Barrier Reef to people like Campbell Newman. I am not a Queenslander—I am certainly not a Queenslander—but I would have no faith in handing over the beauty of the Great Barrier Reef, the future of the Great Barrier Reef and the control of the Great Barrier Reef to Campbell Newman, who just wants to slash and burn. That is a real concern.