Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

Well, they're federal parks, sure, but you've still got to manage. You've still got to be able to be there when it counts, and the successive Labor governments in the Northern Territory have not done that. But let's talk federally. Let's go to what has been done in this portfolio. The member for Lingiari talks about environmental protection and about national parks. We all want our national parks to be the best they can be. What we don't want to see is our national parks locked up—that would be the Greens' way—and then be open to pests and open to absolute destruction. But, in this portfolio, we have seen $178 million of cuts to environmental protection measures from the figures shown in Budget Paper No. 1. There's also a $407 million shortfall between the forecast spending and actual spending on environmental protection for 2022-23.

I would not normally quote organisations such as the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Wilderness Society, WWF Australia and the Australian Land Conservation Alliance, but they have absolutely savaged the handling of the budget in this particular area. There have been absolutely staggering delays from the Minister for the Environment and Water, the member for Sydney, and her office in answer to pleas for information and certainty about whether or not some groups are going to get funding. I know that this is the day when those opposite are going to come in here and spruik their 12 months of delivery. I know it's the day when they're going to be patting themselves on the back having been in government for a year.

The coalition welcomes this motion from the member for Lingiari. I know she comes here with good faith. I know that she's coming here to work hard for her constituents. I'm pleased that she's actually in this place because, but for me and but for the hard work and advocacy of others to keep the seat of Lingiari in the federal parliament, there would not be a seat of Lingiari. Regional people deserve representation, and I don't care whether that representation is a Labor member or whoever—as long as it's not the Greens—but we want to see regional people represented, and, as I say, we want to see our national parks be the best they can be.

Thank you, I'll take that interjection, member for Lingiari, because I know that it's not right that somebody from Tennant Creek or Katherine or Alice Springs, who should be represented, should have to go all the way to Darwin to get representation, so I thank you for your involvement in this place.

I thank you for bringing this motion forward. I represented Kosciuszko from 2010 to 2016 until there was a redistribution, and I know how important national parks are. Indeed, a previous National Party leader and iconic figure, Tim Fischer—the late great Tim Fischer AC—started off the Tumbatrek. It should have actually been called the 'Tim-batrek', because it was Tim's baby. He came up with the idea to promote tourism and promote national parks and to promote the balance of visitation of national parks with the need to conserve and protect the environments of these unique wilderness spots within Australia. Certainly Tumbatrek has been going for many, many years. I revived it back in 2011. I'm glad that I did, and now the member for Eden-Monaro carries the long staff that Tim trekked with. I know that the Labor Party's talking points say 'a decade of neglect and misery' et cetera but, in 2019-20 alone, we devoted $216 million to Kakadu alone and another $233 million to other national parks. We cared. We delivered. It's time Labor just had a little bit of a look back at the real history of what we did in the coalition, during the Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison years to protect the environment, to enhance those unique wildlife areas and to make sure that we did everything we could—and we did!—to ensure that they were protected for future generations.

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