Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Environment and Water (Senate)) Share this | Hansard source

I, and also on behalf of Senator Whish-Wilson, move:

That the South-west Marine Parks Network Management Plan 2018, made under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, be disallowed [F2018L00326].

That the North Marine Parks Network Management Plan 2018, made under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, be disallowed [F2018L00324].

That the North-west Marine Parks Network Management Plan 2018, made under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, be disallowed [F2018L00322].

That the Temperate East Marine Parks Network Management Plan 2018, made under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, be disallowed [F2018L00321].

That the Coral Sea Marine Park Management Plan 2018, made under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, be disallowed [F2018L00327].

What we have in this debate is the Turnbull government now trying to lock in the largest removal of area in our nation's conservation history. There is not a government anywhere in the world that has ever removed this much area, land or sea, from conservation. There will be many losers as a result of a decision in this chamber not to disallow the redrawing of these boundaries at a time when ocean health is at critical levels right around the world. The people of the world are very, very sensitive to this issue.

We have an opportunity to create resilience in large protected areas, and this is being seriously damaged by a decision of this government to remove all of these protection areas. Recreational fishers have now lost the largest recreation-only fishing area in the world, and large-scale industrial fishing and supertrawlers have now received a standing invitation from this government to exploit Australia's marine life. It is now clear that the only way to protect our oceans is to change the government.

Malcolm Turnbull and Josh Frydenberg will now forever be saddled with the global reputation of having removed more area from conservation than anyone else ever. Our Prime Minister likes to fancy himself as something of an environmentalist, but he is clearly not. At a time when other countries are putting more into their marine parks, the Australian government wants to take them away. That is despite the fact that we have some of the world's most wonderful marine assets that can and should be protected.

So let's take a look at some of the areas that this government is taking out of marine protection. Let's take a look at what Minister Frydenberg's own hand-picked panel on marine protection said. They said the expert scientific panel:

… is satisfied that the marine bioregional planning programme … was a sound basis and drew upon the best available information for designing the CMR—

Commonwealth marine park—

networks.

In consultation, the government's expert panel said that some of the stakeholders felt 'conservation fatigue'. Listen to this. How thoroughly did the last government do its job? How thoroughly did the Labor government do its job? Over years of consultation done by Labor, six rounds of consultation were held, 245 public and stakeholder meetings were attended by over 2,000 people, there were 210 days of public comment and around three-quarters of a million public submissions were considered.

In not supporting this disallowance motion, which would change the borders on these marine parks, the government is essentially taking us back to square one. The community is going to have to engage all over again to get this job done. And I tell you: we will. These plans revoke about 40 million hectares of high-level national marine parks, almost twice the area of Victoria. This is equivalent to revoking half of Australia's national parks on land. Think about that. These are areas that deserve national-park-type protection. Just because they're underwater does not mean that they don't deserve the same level of attention and that they are not as environmentally important.

Let's look at some examples. In the Coral Sea, Labor's network has 50.78 per cent marine national park protection—half a million square kilometres. The expert panel that considered the boundaries for this didn't do quite as well as Labor. They had 400,000 square kilometres. That's what the experts said should be there. But we now know that this government, in its changing of protection for the Coral Sea, has 24 per cent protection. This is a figure that the Turnbull government tries to go out and proudly promote as strong marine protection. It means, I'm sad to say, 50 per cent of the marine national park zoning is stripped away. It means Australia's largest recreational fishing zone is erased. It's erased in deference to large-scale industrial fishers, and midwater trawling and tuna long-lining are allowed in these areas that should be protected and should be available for recreational fishing. Our network had 18.4 per cent of the Coral Sea reserve set aside for recreational fishing, and the coalition have removed it entirely and replaced it with areas where commercial fishing is allowed in everything other than bottom trawling. I can tell you: I think the government are a bunch of bottom trawlers. It's true to say that recreational fishers can go there, but indeed so can commercial fishers.

We've seen unique reefs like Marion and Kenn stripped back to only partial protection. We've seen big problems too in the temperate eastern waters. The headline here is that one of Australia's longest-standing marine national park zones, Middleton Reef—part of the wonderful Lord Howe Island Marine Park—has been cut back. It was declared right back in 1987, by the Hawke government, and is incredibly important to the network, particularly as long-time marine national parks zones are rare and valuable. And yet you're cutting that back, an area that has been pristine and protected. You are stripping it right back. In the Commonwealth waters around my home state of Western Australia, the Diamantina Fracture Zone, in one of Australia's largest marine national parks, has been reduced to what is now the lowest possible zoning, where again everything is allowed except bottom trawling. Funnily enough, ruling out bottom trawling is not such a big deal, given that it's an area that's between five and seven kilometres deep. There is no fishing or mining out there. Why do you need to take this marine protection off the books?

Geographe Bay, a really precious area in Western Australia, deserves more protection, but this government has removed two of the very modest marine national parks in this important area. In the north-west, we've had large marine national parks that help sustain the marine life of the Kimberley and the Ningaloo being stripped of much of their protection. In the north, the large marine park on the Gulf of Carpentaria has been stripped away off the Wessel Islands, off Karumba and in the Torres Strait, leaving those important areas also open to bottom trawling and mining.

We have before the chamber today a choice: do we stand up and protect our marine assets or does this chamber lock in the largest removal of area in conservation history? Do we stand up for marine protection in our nation and for our role in protecting the world's oceans? We have some of the best and diverse marine assets in the world. This is a shameful decision coming from this government. Nowhere in the world has anyone ever removed this much from a conservation estate. I call on senators in this chamber to reconsider their position. I agree with the calls of Senator Whish-Wilson that those on the crossbench who have declared their support in opposing this disallowance should come to this chamber and explain themselves.

I can tell every senator in this place that this issue does not die with a decision on this disallowance today. There are hundreds of thousands of people who support strong marine park protection in our nation. They're very engaged citizens. I know you have email inboxes full of communications from these people. They will be ready and charged in the lead-up to the next election to make sure that we deliver a government that's prepared to stand up for strong marine protection for our nation's oceans.