Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to 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.

Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to 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)