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

In my first speech for 2024 I wanted to reflect on the summer that has been. Like a lot of Australians and ocean lovers, I've enjoyed my time down at the beach and in the sea, especially in Tasmania, but there have been some troubling developments. Many are aware that the waters off Tasmania's coastlines have been warming at four times the global average over the last decade, and the impacts are virtually dystopian.

Within the last few weeks, we've seen an ecosystem intervention that we've never seen before. We've seen a quarter of the critically endangered red handfish populations removed from their wild homes in Tasmanian waters and put in tanks and aquariums in order to protect the species from going extinct. We've seen a captive breeding program for the critically endangered Maugean skate, and we've sadly seen two of the skates in that captive breeding program die. Clearly, if we're going to remove endangered fish from dangerous marine heatwaves in the ocean and put them in aquariums in order to prevent them from going extinct, we're going to need bigger aquariums unless we act on climate change.

And it's not just fish. We heard from the CSIRO today that their latest research shows that marine heatwaves are changing the basis of the marine food chain, disrupting ecosystems and potentially global food supplies. It's a grim picture. And, once again, we've heard new research and new ratings on the damage that marine heatwaves are doing to coral reef systems. We've heard that off Tasmania's coastlines we've lost 95 per cent of our giant kelp forests due to marine heatwaves, and we've seen a scourge of invasive species. This is the year that I hope we can put oceans firmly on the political and media agenda here in Australia.