Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I rise to speak on the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975, Great Barrier Reef outlook report for 2019. This is the five-yearly report that is prepared by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. Unfortunately, the reef status has gone from 'poor'—five years ago—to, now, 'very poor' in 2019. This is on the eve of when the World Heritage Committee will once again consider whether or not to list the Great Barrier Reef as a World Heritage site in danger.

As you might recall, the government got a short reprieve on their homework about five years ago. The World Heritage Committee said they'd come back and reconsider that question at their meeting next year. Well, it's not looking good, folks. Not only do we have 64,000 people that rely on the reef for their livelihood, predominantly as tourism operators, we also have one of the seven natural wonders of the world. In fact, the reef is the largest living organism that can be seen from space, and yet we have a government that is doing absolutely nothing about what is described as the biggest threat to the reef: climate change.

We have had some extremely strong remarks made by the folk at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. Usually they're very measured; they're bureaucrats and they don't say these things lightly. So I want to mention that GBRMPA chief scientist, Dr David Wachenfeld, has said, 'What this emphasises for us is the absolutely critical need for the strongest possible mitigation of climate change and reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions.' The report talks of the fact that the reef is now less resilient and increasingly less diverse and that reef dependent industries need to prepare for change.

This is after we saw successive extreme coral bleaching episodes first in 2016 and then in 2017. Two-thirds of the reef was affected by those events, and just shy of 50 per cent of the coral cover died. We've got half of an amazing product that we showcase to the world and half of an ecosystem—that we don't have the right to destroy—which is now being consigned to the history books. We have the government's own authority saying that we need urgent critical action on climate change. And what do we have the government doing? The minister basically tried to say, 'People will be saying that the reef's fine. Other people will be saying that it's not fine. We're somewhere in between. She'll be right, mate. Go back to sleep.' Not good enough.

Professor Terry Hughes, one of the world's foremost coral reef scientists, a distinguished professor at JCU, noted:

… the report said "the current rate of global warming will not allow the maintenance of a healthy reef for future generations […] the window of opportunity to improve the reef's long-term future is now".

Even he—who has wept over the state of the reef in teaching his class at JCU after these bleaching events—still says we have time now to change our path, to take rapid climate action, to try to rebuild the reef's resilience, and to try to protect those 64,000 jobs and the absolute teeming biodiversity that the reef has supported. But he says:

A logical national response to the outlook report would be a pledge to curb activity that contributes to global warming and damages the reef. Such action would include a ban on the new extraction of fossil fuels, phasing out coal-fired electricity generation, transitioning to electrified transport, controlling land clearing and reducing local stressors on the reef such as land-based runoff from agriculture.

So here we have yet another reef scientist, with more credentials that any of the people in this room, begging for a transition away from fossil fuels to save what's left of the reef.

This could be a lasting legacy of this government. Are they really going to condemn the reef to the annals of history? Are they going to write the death warrant of the reef? It seems so, because, in the same week the report was released, the latest emissions data was also released. The bad news is that it's been going up since 2013. This government likes to pretend it is doing something about the climate, but the data shows otherwise. You are cooking the reef. Climate change is driving the severity of bushfires which are now wreaking havoc not only on northern New South Wales but also on southern Queensland a week out of winter, and you have some of the most learned folks begging for urgent action. We know we can do this. We could retool our economy with 100 per cent renewables. It would create more jobs, and safeguard the reef and the folks whose jobs rely on the reef remaining healthy. There's no downside to this, except for the coalmining companies who are used to getting their own way with this government and, frankly, with the opposition, because they make massive donations to their election campaigns. The future of the reef is at stake. It's time we listened to the science and stood up to protect it.