Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities) Share this | Hansard source

I hear people opposite calling out 'risk', but you will never hear them call out 'environmental risk'! You will never hear them care for a moment about that. And I do not know what their problem is with the oceans. Why is it that when we try to protect the oceans, as in this case, they are against it; when we put in national parks, they are against it; when we fight with Campbell Newman over protecting the Great Barrier Reef, they are against it? You need to have a cautious approach. You need to adopt a precautionary principle in dealing with the oceans; otherwise, we will end up with decisions that are not science based. We are not willing to rush into decisions when the underpinning information is not yet before us. In this way, there will be a pause on different operations legally available while the expert work is done.

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