Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This motion by the member for Wide Bay is said to be about the survival of the rare or endangered Mary River turtle, the rare or endangered Australian lungfish, the Mary River cod and a range of other species. The only survival that the member for Wide Bay is concerned with is the survival of his rare and endangered party, the National Party. That is what lies behind this motion; that is what lies behind the support that has been given to this motion by the member for Fairfax.

It is striking that this motion by the member for Wide Bay comes from a member of this House who loves dams. The member for Wide Bay has supported dams for his entire time in this parliament. He opposed the draining of Lake Pedder. He supported the construction of the Franklin dam in Tasmania. He supported the construction of the Todd River dam outside Alice Springs. The only thing different about this dam is that it is in the state of Queensland, which is governed by the Australian Labor Party. That is why there is opposition to this dam by the member for Wide Bay. This is an attack on the state government, consistent with what National Party and Liberal Party members are doing repeatedly in this place, which is attacking state governments. It is an attack on the state government of Queensland because the coalition is bereft of ideas for the government of the nation. If there were any ideas for the government of the nation, we would expect to see motions being put forward on national issues in this place by the member for Wide Bay and the Leader of the National Party, not this sort of attack on state governments.

Let us just bear in mind a bit of the history about this. This dam was proposed some years ago. It has been under attack by the member for Wide Bay since 2006, while he was a senior minister of the government and in a position to do something about it. The call that he is now making on the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts is not a call that he made on the minister for the environment in the previous government. He is now calling for a complete abuse of the processes under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act of the Commonwealth, an act passed by the previous government which sets up a very clear procedure as to how environmental assessment of major projects of this nature is to be conducted. It sets up a process where big projects which can be regarded as having a major environmental effect on matters of national environmental significance are declared to be actions which warrant an appropriate assessment. That assessment is now underway. It has been underway since the referral took place in November 2006.

See this speech in context