Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move a motion in relation to the response by Minister Hunt to the resolution of the Senate regarding the Abbot Point dredging proposal.

Leave granted.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I rise tonight to take note of Minister Hunt's response to a really important Senate motion that was passed a few months ago regarding the Abbot Point dredging project. As people will recall, this is the plan to make Abbot Point the world's largest coal port. It is not just anywhere but in the Great Barrier Reef. Clearly, this is horrific. What is even worse is that it will involve five million tonnes of dredging—that is, digging up the seabed—and offshore dumping of that sludge back into the reef's World Heritage waters.

We moved the motion back in March. Some freedom of information documents have revealed that the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority had cautioned against approving this dangerous project. In their internal advice, their scientists said they believed that the Abbot Point application should be refused and that the offshore dumping had the potential to cause long-term irreversible harm to areas of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. They thought that the North Queensland Bulk Ports Corporation dredge plume modelling—how far the stuff would travel once you dumped it—was of limited value, deficient and unreliable. They went on to say that they thought the project would result in water quality in the region being in a degraded state for approximately the next six to seven years.

Lastly, they finished by saying that they thought the proposed conditions were not practical or feasible, that the damage could not be offset and that the conditions were effectively unachievable. This was pretty explosive stuff, because it was clear internal scientific advice that this project was going to be dodgy and damaging for the Great Barrier Reef. So the Senate moved that motion and called on Minister Hunt to reconsider his approval for this project, to have another look at the science and to have another go at the decision—and, hey, maybe to refuse something for a change.

Sadly, in the response that we have now received from Minister Hunt he has said: 'No, go back to sleep. We've done a rigorous assessment process. It's best practice application of national law. I've considered all of the relevant research and advice. Everything commissioned by GBRMPA I considered.' That is very interesting, because a report was released last Friday showing that our so-called best practice national environmental law is actually full of flaws. In Gladstone Harbour there was a similar dredging and dumping proposal in a different location but done under the same system. The report found that those conditions were poorly drafted, that they had not been properly enforced and that multiple alleged breaches had not been investigated. So the system which he claims is best practice, his own inquiry found inadequate. So I am afraid I do not share Minister Hunt's confidence in the strength of our environmental laws.

What is more, if you have a report saying that you are not enforcing your own conditions, yet we have a budget tonight that is expected to slash even more staff who might otherwise be responsible for enforcing those conditions, how on earth can there be any confidence that the conditions placed on Abbot Point will be complied with? I am afraid the farce continues.

The offset condition that was imposed in this instance has come under some scrutiny. Frankly, commentators have found that it is pretty ludicrous. Minister Hunt seems to think that he is actually going to make the water quality better. By dumping five million tonnes of sludge into the Great Barrier Reef he is going to make the water quality 150 per cent better. I am afraid that we have not yet found an expert who thinks that that is viable or achievable.

What is more, the amount that would need to be offset to make water quality 150 per cent better is unachievable. We have had a wonderful program going for the last five-or-so years called Reef Rescue. It has been supported by the Commonwealth and Queensland governments. It has been supported by the hard work of farmers who are changing their practices, on farm, to try and retain sediment and stop that run-off. They are making some wonderful gains. We have been huge supporters of that program. Indeed, it needs more funding.

Unfortunately, allowing the big mining companies and the North Queensland Bulk Ports Corporation to dump five million tonnes of that sludge really undermines that work. If you were to offset the damage done by that dumping you would need to be doing that program by a means that was 20 times more efficient. To put that another way, now off Abbot Point 20 times the sediment will be dumped as the combined might of two levels of government, with $200 million and five years, had achieved. So how on earth that offset condition is achievable is completely beyond me, particularly when that Gladstone report has found that conditions enforcement is quite underperforming.

Sadly, it seems that the minister, despite internal concern within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, has decided, once again, to back the big mining companies by backing the doubling and trebling of coal export through our Great Barrier Reef. He is sadly ignoring the concerns of the World Heritage Committee, who have warned us once again—how many passes are we going to get?—that the reef is in danger of being put on that World Heritage list of sites in danger. We know that that would have a devastating effect on our tourism economy in Queensland and we know that it would signify the peril that the reef is truly in.

We have a different path to go down, and that path could start with the minister reconsidering and revoking his approval for the Abbot Point coal port. We call upon him to do that. Thank you.