Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's very uncomfortable for Senator Whish-Wilson to hear someone on this side of the chamber say this—that we should be working with our partners around the world, that we should be talking to UNESCO and that we should be working with them constructively. We have been accountable and transparent in the information that we have been giving not only to our partners at UNESCO but also to people around the world. We monitor and publish data on the reef like no other country in the entire world. To insinuate that there has been any attempt at deception is untrue and unfair to the incredible people who work on the reef every single day.

We know that we cannot act alone. Those down the end might want Australia to sit in isolation on this, but we want to work with those people around the world. We know that there has never been a more important or critical time. I know people around the country, particularly in Queensland, are eager to take practical action, so I have a really good suggestion for the dear senator down here: work with us and work with the people in Queensland to deliver on these actions, and that includes working with the Queensland government. The truth is that, leading into the rest of the year, we have a lot of work to do, and there is something that will put that work at risk. We need the Leader of the Opposition in Queensland, David Crisafulli, to rule out cutting funding to the joint management program, rule out repealing the water quality regulations, say that he supports the ban on destructive gillnet fishing and refuse to overturn the ban if his government is elected. We need bipartisanship not just here but also in Queensland on these important reef protection measures.

The biggest threat to the Great Barrier Reef is climate change, but what we've seen over the last 10 years in this place is that the LNP is a close second. So what I would call on Queenslanders to do while they deal with this news is think carefully about who is protecting the reef and who is silent on it. We haven't heard much from David Crisafulli, and we hear things from the other side of the chamber all the time that deny the science around the Great Barrier Reef. I hope we don't hear the same things from the Leader of the Opposition in Queensland.

Our government is doing more than any other government has done to take action on climate change. We know that it's important for our energy transition. We know it's important for us to keep up with the rest of the world. We know it's important not to lose those opportunities when it comes to investing in renewable energy. But we also know that it's important to the Great Barrier Reef. We want the Great Barrier Reef to be there for generations to come because there are so many jobs in Queensland and around the country that rely on the Great Barrier Reef.

The LNP put the reef at risk in real terms and reputationally. Our government has turned that around, and we'll continue to do that. We'll continue to work in partnership with Queenslanders, with traditional owners, with scientists, with landholders and with tourism operators. We are working together in partnership to deliver the action required, and that's more than any motion in the Senate would ever achieve under those at the end of the chamber.