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

Australians are very familiar with the Great Barrier Reef and the many challenges it faces in a time of climate emergency, including coral bleaching from warming oceans and marine invasive species like crown-of-thorn starfish. They're also becoming increasingly familiar with the Great Southern Reef. This equally important marine ecosystem stretches from New South Wales to Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia through to Western Australia. It is also facing many challenges, including marine invasive species such as the long-spined sea urchin, or Centrostephanus.

I'm very proud to acknowledge that today we have a delegation from the Great Southern Reef in the gallery. I want to especially thank Helen Burvill from the Eastern Zone Abalone Industry Association. I also want to thank Chris Daniel and Brendan Wadsworth, both abalone divers; Chris Theodore from the Sea Urchin Harvest; Ryan Morris from the South Coast Sea Urchins; Dr Julian Amos from the Tasmanian Abalone Council; and Dr Patrick Hone from the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation. Travelling with them are Associate Professor Scott Ling and Dr John Keane, scientists from our home state of Tasmania and the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, and Dr Scott Bennett and Stefan Andrews, co-founders of the Great Southern Reef Foundation.

Senators can go to Instagram and type in 'Great Southern Reef Foundation'. I urge you to follow them and all the amazing work they are doing. They're coming to Canberra not only to hopefully meet with many of you in the chamber today and in the other place but to raise awareness of the many challenges along our eastern seaboard, right across to Western Australia, for coastal communities, for people who earn an income off the reef, for people who love the reef and want to protect it and for the need for governments to fully fund strategies to deal with these challenges. They're up here to meet politicians and to raise awareness, and I welcome them to Canberra.