Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Ketter for his question. I don't have details on the consultancies that may or may not have been engaged by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation. I am quite happy to take on notice and provide any further information, if there is some, about such a process. Of course, indeed, you would expect the foundation to be looking, in terms of their work, to make the best out of the generous funding that the Turnbull government is providing for the Great Barrier Reef to ensure they leverage that to the maximum possible extent. That's what we want them to do. We want them to use that funding to ensure that they attract even more private philanthropic contributions to support the reef, as they have done in the past.

We also, of course, want them to deploy the funding, to complement all of the other work that we have undertaken over the last few years—work to improve water quality, work towards better management of the reef, work that has taken the reef off of the endangered list, work that has ensured that we have a reef with a much better management structure in place today than was the case when we took office. This is the next step in building on that work.

We will not let up, as a government, in terms of our efforts to protect and preserve the Great Barrier Reef for future generations, to ensure that it gets the support that it deserves. I just find it remarkable that the Australian Labor Party would come in here and consistently wish to undermine the work of protecting the Great Barrier Reef. They are selling out the Great Barrier Reef. They seem to have no care—