Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Just two weeks ago the world's most powerful nations, the G7, met in Biarritz, in France. When the G7 came together it was speculated that the key agenda item was going to be tariff wars between China and the US. Let me tell you what the key agenda item was: it was the burning of the Amazon, the 'lungs of the earth', and land clearing. It didn't escape my attention that our Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, was invited to the G7 that day as an observer. There he stood in the background with the world's most powerful leaders while the world focused on the burning of the Amazon. It gave me some hope that, while trade deals between Europe and Brazil were being discussed, nations and leaders like President Macron said, 'There will be no trade deal with Brazil.' Germany threatened 'no trade deal with Brazil'. They threatened to pull their funding if Brazil didn't do something about the rapid decline of that natural wonder. Imagine if the world's leaders had also pulled aside our Prime Minister that very day and said, 'By the way, mate, what's going on with the Great Barrier Reef and the Murray-Darling?' I tell you what: we can't be on our high horse when we criticise the right-wing President of Brazil for land clearing and what seems like a blatant disregard for one of the natural wonders of the world when our own Great Barrier Reef, which is arguably just as important for biodiversity, just as important for regulation of the weather, is also suffering a sad and rapid decline.

Within a week of that G7 meeting, as Senator Waters has said today, three reports were released in rapid succession. The first one was our government asking the World Heritage Committee to take climate change out of the equation when it visits Australia and assesses the heritage values of the reef, which we all know are stuffed. Just a day later the reef's own manager and some of the best scientists in the world put out a statement saying that the outlook for the reef has gone from poor to very poor. What did our environment minister have to say in the news that night—I'm sorry it wasn't you, Senator Duniam; I'm sure you'd have liked to have been in front of the cameras for that report. She said, 'Well, the reef is the best managed reef in the world.' While that might be the case, if you don't manage climate change it's for nothing. The Great Barrier Reef has now officially been admitted to the emergency ward, and no amount of cosmetic surgery from your government, Senator Duniam, is going to get the Great Barrier Reef out of the emergency ward.

Senator Duniam interjecting—

You might laugh, but it's not funny. We are facing the death of this global icon on our watch. I have been and dived on the Great Barrier Reef twice in the last 10 years, and I saw what it was like before three coral bleachings in the last eight years. I took a Senate committee up there to dive on the reef. We met with experts and we heard evidence right across Queensland about the disruption of the reef. This is no secret now. The government's own reef manager is telling us we need to ring this bell as loud as possible if we're going to save a global icon.

Let me conclude tonight on where I get my hope from—I tell you, the amount of times I have stared at my ceiling at night-time thinking about the future of the reef. Let me tell you where I get my hope from, Senator Duniam—through you, Chair. I hope that the world pays attention. It did with the Amazon. Never before have I seen nations put the environment before economic matters at a G7 meeting. And I hope that the UNESCO World Heritage Committee comes to Australia and that it takes on board this evidence and looks very seriously at this government's track record—the third report that was released that week about this government's irresponsible rising emissions, not to mention trying to ship coal at a rapid rate overseas, releasing massive carbon bombs.

Australians have some of the highest per capita emissions in the world. We have an international shame when it comes to being custodian of the Great Barrier Reef, an inherent, brutal conflict of interest: we manage the reef, but we export global warming like no other country on this planet. We have very important decisions to make, and I hope that UNESCO rings that bell really loudly and that this government has nowhere to go but to act on climate and do its job, and to be the custodian of the reef for this planet and for the nations around this planet that care about the future of their grandchildren. (Time expired)