Marion Scrymgour (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that the Government will invest an extra $262.3 million in the 2023-24 budget to address the chronic underfunding of Australia's iconic national parks;

(2) acknowledges that after a decade of mismanagement and neglect by the former Government, our national parks have been left with broken infrastructure, out-of-date equipment, and inadequate facilities; and

(3) further notes that the Government's investment will address critical infrastructure needs, including updating unsafe equipment, fixing inadequate signage, providing essential ranger housing, and refurbishing rundown facilities.

I am proud to be moving this motion today, and I am proud of the Albanese government's commitment to our national parks. In the Territory, we are blessed with a truly stunning natural landscape. From the saltwater and rainforest of the north to the deserts of the centre, we have some of the most beautiful country in the world. Our natural environment and our national parks attract tens of thousands of tourists each year, building the Territory's economy, fuelling business and providing employment.

For many Territorians, our national parks are also places of deep cultural importance. Ancient rock art at Ubirr and Uluru speak to this. For tens of thousands of years Aboriginal people have protected and nurtured our environment. Today this legacy continues with the Indigenous ranger program and thousands of Aboriginal people looking after country in the Territory.

For our national parks this funding is an absolute lifeline. For the last decade, the former government simply could not manage our national parks. The fiasco that was the Morrison government's $260 million Kakadu funding is a testament to this. For three years, the previous government sat on that money, with very little reaching the ground.

Finally we have a government that gets our national parks. Since we have been in government we have tripled the amount of money reaching frontline organisations in Kakadu. I know Minister Plibersek and her team have had long conversations with Kakadu traditional owners and national parks as well as other stakeholders about how we can get that particularly special part of the world back on track. I am very eager to see Kakadu get the support and investment it so desperately deserves.

We are committed to investing in our natural landscapes and improving working conditions for our rangers. Currently, infrastructure in our national parks is in a state of disrepair. But the Albanese Labor government is rolling out an ambitions body of work to bring this up to standard. The Albanese government's investment will go towards addressing critical infrastructure, including updating unsafe equipment, fixing inadequate signage, providing essential ranger housing and refurbishing rundown facilities, such as the Kakadu Aboriginal cultural centre. This will boost conservation activities and cultural heritage management. We aren't just paying lip service to the importance of our parks; we are putting our money where our mouth is.

This investment will also create 110 new jobs, including new roles for traditional owners to work on country and new positions to ensure safety and deliver major projects. I have seen the impact of Indigenous rangers firsthand. Before I came to parliament, I worked alongside hundreds of Indigenous rangers through the Northern Land Council. The work our rangers undertake on a daily basis is not only grounded in cultural knowledge; it is also a meaningful employment pathway for many of our young people out bush. The Albanese government gets this and understands this.

For Lingiari, the additional traditional owner rangers and the $262 million plan more broadly will have huge socioeconomic as well as environmental outcomes. I am lucky to have parks of natural significance in my electorate, including Kakadu, Litchfield, Uluru-Kata Tjuta, Finke Gorge, Nitmiluk, Tjoritja, or the West MacDonnell Ranges, and Watarrka, to name but a few. I want to send out a special thanks to Minister Plibersek for all of the work that she has done on this. It is refreshing to have a minister for the environment that actually cares about the environment, talks the talk and actually does the work that is required.

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