Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority annual report, along with a number of other reports that have been tabled today, focuses in particular on the impact of global warming and the impact that that is having on the health of Australia's ecosystems, economy and environment in general. The opening pages of the annual report of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority lay this out in very stark terms. The chairman's review says:

It has been a challenging year for the Great Barrier Reef and for tropical coral reefs around the world. Many have been affected by human-induced global warming causing mass coral bleaching and significant losses of live coral cover.

It states:

The Authority reported the impacts of the mass bleaching in 2015-16 in the Marine Park, identifying long-term ocean warming as the underlying cause. We also pointed to the need to reduce global greenhouse gas—in particular the need to deliver the commitments of the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

It also notes that some of the other factors that are impacting on the reef, such as an outbreak of coral disease and crown-of-thorns starfish, have been ongoing and that it's likely that the increase in coral disease is a symptom of physiological stress after coral bleaching. Then adding to these impacts was severe Tropical Cyclone Debbie, and the chairman's review notes:

This tropical cyclone was very large, powerful and slow-moving, causing massive waves that break coral into rubble. These category 4 and 5 storms are not unprecedented but are increasing in frequency, with more occurring in the past 12 years than occurred in the previous 100 years.

In other words, it is authoritative; it backs up all the other evidence from all over the world about the impact that global warming is having on such significant natural features as well as on our economy in Australia and across the world. It points out starkly that we cannot address the problems that the Great Barrier Reef is facing without making serious efforts to reduce the impact of global warming. That's what it comes down to. With all of the work that we can do—we can be reducing sediment run-offs, we can be doing our best to be addressing crown-of-thorns starfish and doing everything else that we can—unless we address the underlying cause of mitigating global warming, it will all be for nought. We've seen from the unprecedented back-to-back years of coral bleaching what impact that has had, with 90 per cent of the reef being affected. We are looking down the barrel of seeing the death of the Great Barrier Reef or vast portions of it within coming years. This was not what was being foreshadowed, even just five years ago. These are the impacts that global warming is having on the Great Barrier Reef, as well as on other ecosystems around the country and, as a consequence, on our economy and social wellbeing.

Without the Great Barrier Reef there, think of the tens of thousands of jobs that aren't going to be there. Think of the massive impact on the Queensland and the Australian economies when you have such a large portion of the reef that will no longer be there as the tourist attraction that it currently is, let alone the massive impacts on the marine ecosystems with the death of large portions of the reef. Yet, this government continues on just paying lip service to climate change. It continues on wanting an expansion of coalmining and an expansion of coal exports. It continues on with actually wanting to put billions of dollars of our taxes into subsidising the coal industry, which we know is only going to exacerbate climate change. We know that if the Galilee Basin and the coal there is used it is going to be the equivalent of having another whole country of carbon emissions going up into the atmosphere, destroying the precious jewel that is currently there in the Great Barrier Reef.

It is there in black and white. It is stark and it is important. It is the most important thing that we need to do as a country—to work out and to be serious about reducing our carbon emissions.

Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is still not my first speech. In regard to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, as senators would be well aware, I represent the fabulous state of Queensland. I have just heard from my colleague Senator Rice a very good elaboration of just how crucial that littoral wonder of the world is, not just for my home state of Queensland but for all Australians to feel proud of. It's a significant part of our Australian identity. In regard to the state of Queensland, it is also a key driver of our economy.

This report details the serious threat that the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is currently under. It is worth noting that when we talk about the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park it is not just the reef. The reef and coral are magnificent—and the life that depends explicitly on it in that location. But we're talking about the entire marine park—all the other waterways. It runs right up to the coast. So it is all of those coastal areas of Queensland that, literally, abut the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. So the health of the entire marine park, beyond just the coral, is something that we all need to be significantly conscious of. The health of the entire marine park is something that is at serious risk.

Let's not forget that we were very much on the cusp of the World Heritage listing of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park as being in danger on a global level because of inadequate management. And that's not a reflection on the marine park authority; it's a reflection on government policies at both state and federal levels, allowing the pressures on the marine park to become worse and worse. Climate change and the impact of the continued push to expand coalmines in Queensland is a key part of that, but there are so many other factors, as well, particularly along the coastal areas of Queensland. I want to give one example. The city of Gladstone is not often thought of as an environmental destination. It's thought of as an industrial hub—and it's certainly part of that—but it is also at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. It is an area of amazing natural beauty. When I was travelling through there a couple of times in the lead-up to last year's federal election, I met with some of the people from the local council there, and they are very much conscious of the need to diversify their economy into the future—to not just rely on the old approaches of resource extraction. The day I went through was a day when a cruise ship came into Gladstone Harbour. It is not what people think of first up when they're thinking of going to Gladstone, but it is an area where the natural environment is that of the entire marine park, where you can dive among coral and look at the fish. There are all of the wonders of the marine park that are a natural attractor to that region.

Just a couple of weeks ago I was in Rockhampton and was able to speak to people there from Capricorn Enterprise, an umbrella organisation for a whole range of businesses in that region. They were emphasising a number of factors important to the economy and the jobs of that region, particularly in regard to being able to promote the Capricorn region as a key tourist destination. Again, part of that is the reef but part of it is the marine park and the health of the marine and water environment. For example, the moves and positive initiatives in recent times—again, driven by the Greens and many others in the environment movement—to preserve more marine areas from commercial fishing were resisted fiercely by some on the opposite side, by some in the LNP in particular. But, as was predicted, they have enabled better growth of fish stocks in those regions, making it more available for people who are attracted to recreational fishing.

We have Great Keppel Island, a key driver for people to come to that area, where economic and social opportunities in that region alone have not been able to be advanced because of an appalling lease that was given many years ago on state government owned land for an inappropriate massive development. We have the absurd approach in this state election at the moment from people suggesting that the way forward is to build a casino on Great Keppel Island—a completely economically unsustainable approach when there are so many other proposals that would enable the restoration of that island environmentally and as a great tourist destination, and enable a multitude of different small, appropriate economic activities that would bring people to the island and to the region.

Tourism just in the Capricorn region injects $525 million of direct expenditure each year which supports over 5,000 jobs just in that region. That's over three to four times more than the figures given out for the entire Adani mine. It's a key reason why I defend the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park—not just the reef but the marine park itself. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.