Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that the:

(a) last three years have seen an unprecedented global coral bleaching event which has had a devastating impact on many coral reefs ecosystems around the world, including our own Great Barrier Reef (GBR); and

(b) World Heritage Committee:

(i) met in early July in Poland and expressed its 'utmost concern' regarding the 'serious impacts from coral bleaching that have affected World Heritage properties' ; and

(ii) noted that the most widely reported impacts were on the GBR and called on all States Parties to undertake ' the most ambitious implementation of the Paris Agreement' ;

(2) recognises that:

(a) the World Heritage Centre released the first global scientific assessment of the impact of climate change on World Heritage coral reefs;

(b) the assessment found that it is a well established conclusion of international peer reviewed literature that limiting the global average temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre industrial levels provides a chance of retaining coral-dominated communities for many reef locations around the globe;

(c) the assessment also found that the GBR will start to experience severe coral bleaching twice per decade by 2035, a mere

18 years away; and

(d) this frequency of bleaching will not allow coral reefs to recover, putting the survival of the GBR in danger along with the 64,000 jobs that are dependent on it; and

(3) calls on the Government to:

(a) urgently adopt a clean energy target that is fully consistent with Australia' s obligations within the World Heritage Convention to protect the outstanding universal value of the GBR World Heritage area; and

(b) abandon plans for a $1 billion loan through the Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility to Adani to help establish one of the world' s largest coal mines.

Coral bleaching is a significant problem for the Great Barrier Reef and therefore for my state of Queensland, our nation and the world, given the international significance of the Great Barrier Reef. Mr Deputy Speaker, you would be aware there have been back-to-back severe bleaching incidents across the Great Barrier Reef, one in 2017 and one in 2016. It's unprecedented for there to be back-to-back severe coral bleaching episodes on the Great Barrier Reef. We also had significant episodes of bleaching back in 2002 and in 1998.

The ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, based at James Cook University, has noted that, with only one degree Celsius of warming, we have had four bleaching events over 19 years, so it is a very concerning challenge ahead of us when it comes to responding to climate change. The back-to-back incidents are particularly worrying because the reef needs cooler water in order to be able to survive. With the heating episode and then the bleaching, what needs to happen for that coral not to die is for the algae to be able to recolonise the coral. But it can't do that if the water temperature doesn't drop. Back-to-back bleaching incidents are particularly concerning. The centre of excellence has said that we have now had bleaching affect around 1,500 kilometres of the Great Barrier Reef. About two-thirds of the Great Barrier Reef has been impacted. The centre has described huge tracts of the Great Barrier Reef being affected by this coral bleaching episode.

Of course the key driver of this bleaching we're seeing is climate change. It's the warming of the planet. It's very important that, as a parliament, we come together and work towards responding to climate change. That means getting serious about fossil fuels. It means getting serious about renewable energy, and, of course, it also means getting serious about policies that are aimed at dealing with climate change and not aimed at denying climate change.

That's why so many of us were gravely disappointed when the former Prime Minister the member for Warringah addressed the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a climate denialist organisation. He turned up and not only engaged in the climate scepticism that is their stock and trade but also suggested that perhaps global warming might be a good thing, because 'cold snaps are bad for people.' It is just gobsmacking that we have someone who previously led the Australian government as the Prime Minister now openly engaging with the denialists and arguing that perhaps global warming is a good thing. It's not a good thing. It's categorically not a good thing, and we need to get serious about responding to it.

In Australia, one way that we can get serious about responding to climate change is of course to address the record amount of tree clearing that has been happening in Queensland. The Queensland Labor government, the Palaszczuk government, has sought to take action in respect of tree clearing. You would be aware, Mr Deputy Speaker, that tree clearing started with abandon under the previous Newman Liberal National government in Queensland, and we are now seeing vast amounts of tree clearing. I've got the Gabba in my electorate, and an area of that size is being cleared on a regular basis throughout the day. This is something that I think most Queenslanders and most Australians would be horrified at, yet the Queensland parliament—and of course the Labor government is a minority government in Queensland—stopped the Queensland government's moves to put the brakes on tree clearing. It's going to take a majority Labor government in Queensland to respond to tree clearing. That's why I'm so keen for people to get behind the Palaszczuk government, so we can deal with tree clearing.

I also think it's important that we as a nation look at where we put taxpayers' money when it comes to investment. There's a lot of discussion about whether the Liberal government might invest $1 billion of taxpayers' money in the Adani project. I have said publicly, and I say again: this is not a project that should receive one cent of public funds. Public funding should not be going to subsidising the Adani project that this government is considering supporting. It absolutely should not do that. The government should instead be investing public money in mitigating climate change. It should instead be investing public money in doing something about the Great Barrier Reef bleaching that we're seeing. It certainly should not be encouraging coalition conservative governments at the state level to allow rampant tree clearing.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Trevor Evans (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This motion really does contain some fine sentiments. I share some of the member for Griffith's concerns about recent bleaching events. Sentiments are fine and they do have their place, but sometimes actions and outcomes are what matter more. Anyone who genuinely cares about the Great Barrier Reef and has been following its health and its progress for many years will know that it seems to get put on the UN watch list when Labor is in government and taken off the UN watch list when the Liberals are in government. It happened recently. When the coalition government took office in 2013, the Great Barrier Reef was on the UN World Heritage Committee's watch list, basically because Labor was proposing four sites for the dumping of dredge spoils. When we took office we put a stop to the dredge sites and the Great Barrier Reef was taken off the UN's watch list.

I'm glad the member for Griffith referenced the World Heritage Committee's recent session because in that session they congratulated this government on its work to help protect the reef. Specifically, they mentioned their considerable appreciation of the efforts of this government in the creation and implementation of the Great Barrier Reef's long-term plans. That sort of track record extends back decades for Liberal governments. After all, it was a Liberal Prime Minister who set up the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority all those years ago. I'm very proud to say that more recently this government has directed record amounts of funding towards the Great Barrier Reef. The Reef Water Quality Protection Plan, the Great Barrier Reef Climate Change Action Plan, the Reef Guardian stewardship program have all been initiated and funded under this government. Let me put that another way. Rather than expressing mere sentiments, this government has done more—put more money on the table, made bigger commitments and put in place more programs—than any other government of any persuasion in Australia's history.

Some of the sentiment in this motion is about linking the health of the Great Barrier Reef to achieving our commitments under the Paris agreement. That's good and fine. Of course, the answer to that is that Australia will meet its commitments under the Paris agreement under this government, just like we met and exceeded our targets under Kyoto. Given Australia's size and place in the world, the bigger risk to the reef is other nations not meeting their commitments. That's where more of our sentiments and, indeed, more activist efforts should be directed.

One line in this motion really grabbed my attention. It's the one about the possibility of a loan to Adani for a railway line. This is where it ceases to be just a sentiment for Labor and moves into a place where Labor could do something, actually take action, if they meant it. The Adani Carmichael mine in Queensland is going ahead because the Labor state government approved it. Let's not get distracted by sentiments or words here. If you don't like the Adani mine, you should go straight to the government that approved it, that gave it its licence, that set the environmental conditions and that laid out its transport plans.

The mover of this motion, the member for Griffith, has an electorate that entirely overlaps with that of the Deputy Premier of Queensland, Jackie Trad. She is the deputy leader of the Labor government that approved the mine. Popular rumour has it that Jackie Trad calls the shots inside that government and tells the Minister for Natural Resources and Mines, Anthony Lynham, how high to jump. If the member for Griffith really wanted to take action to stop the Adani mine, she should start with them. She should talk to her Queensland Labor counterparts, including those in her own electorate, and she should be leveraging her influence with them on George Street, not grandstanding in Canberra.

The final reference to the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility is probably the most misleading and ill-advised sentiment of all. Let's be clear here: there's an application for a loan because the Queensland Labor government arranged for that application to be submitted. The Queensland Labor government's proposal is for an application for a NAIF loan. Their names are at the top of the paperwork. Their approvals will require Adani to build community rail not private infrastructure. They will require Adani, through their transport conditions, to build infrastructure to benefit the entire community through that area. In other words, because they've asked Adani to build infrastructure not for their own private purposes but for the benefit of the entire community, it is therefore a project that becomes eligible for a NAIF loan. Let's not forget that, if the loan goes ahead, the Queensland Labor government will get the money in their accounts before passing it on. The Labor Party is saying one thing to the people of inner Brisbane about Adani and is saying another thing to the people of regional Queensland. They need to be called out on it.

Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm proud to rise and speak in support of this excellent motion about supporting the Great Barrier Reef with concrete actions. The Great Barrier Reef, besides being inherently naturally beautiful and a great piece of this country's heritage, employs 64,000 Australians—64,000 Australians whose livelihoods depend on a healthy Great Barrier Reef, a legacy that we hold in trust for future generations. If we're serious about preserving the Great Barrier Reef, we have to be serious about keeping global warming under 1½ degrees Celsius. The last speaker talked about the government's 26 per cent emissions reduction target by 2030—a target that is woefully inadequate and a target that is consistent with a three-degree warming scenario, not a two-degree let alone a 1½ degree warming scenario. It is a target that has been universally derided as inadequate by climate change scientists and experts. That is why I'm proud that Labor's target is 45 per cent—a target that is endorsed by the Climate Change Authority.

What is worse is this government has zero chance of hitting its 26 per cent reduction target. They have zero chance, because they don't have any mechanisms to deliver it. They achieved Kyoto through accounting tricks around carryover units from the first Kyoto period, where we achieved our targets through a combination of the carbon price being in action for a couple of years and Peter Beattie and Anna Bligh's visionary restrictions on land clearing. They talk about being opposed to banning land clearing, but that's the only reason this government hit the Kyoto targets. Today, a submission is being taken through cabinet that will presumably kill the clean energy target—the last best hope to get a bipartisan climate change and energy policy that will set us on a path of decarbonising our economy. Why will it be killed? It is because we have a jelly-backed Prime Minister in search of a spine—a Prime Minister who is now at the beck and call of the conservative elements of the coalition party room, rather than the old Prime Minister, the old Malcolm, who in 2009 said, 'I will not lead a party that's not committed to taking action on climate change.' That member from Wentworth is a mere memory. What is he walking away from? He's walking away from a review commissioned by this government in which the Chief Scientist recommended a clean energy target and said that it will lower power prices, drive new investment and put us on a path to reducing emissions—a clean energy target endorsed both by the Prime Minister as recently as two months ago when he said it would work and by the Minister for the Environment and Energy, who said it will lower power prices.

This is a sad day for the nation in that the government is walking away from its last best chance of actually setting us on the path to meeting its inadequate 26 per cent emissions reduction target. This will imperil the reef. The last speaker talked about the need for concerted international action, and he's absolutely right. To help save the reef, we need international action to decarbonise the global economy. No other country is going to take us seriously if we don't meet our commitments, let alone meet meaningful commitments, and that is what this government is doing.

On Adani, the global seaborne trade for thermal coal has declined every year since 2013. It's declining each year as other countries shift to more investment in other power sources. So we've got a declining market, and this government is proposing a $1 billion subsidy to set up a competitor in a declining market to my coal mines. They're imperilling the 18,000 coalmining jobs in the Hunter region and the thousands of jobs in the Bowen Basin if they go ahead with this subsidy. I'm not anti-coalmining, but I'm anti subsidies into a declining market that don't make economic sense. This is a direct threat to the 18,000 coalminers in my electorate, to our environment and to the Great Barrier Reef—and for what? According to the government's own figures, it is for 1,400 jobs—at best—while imperilling 64,000 jobs on the Great Barrier Reef.

If this government was serious about saving the reef, it would take concerted action on climate change, commit to a 45 per cent emissions reduction target and, more importantly, put in place a mechanism that would actually put us on that path, rather than being a jelly-back Prime Minister who is junking the clean energy target as we speak.

Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This far-reaching gibberish that the member for Shortland has just extended was actually originally put by the member for Griffith. It is ironic, because it was in fact her predecessor who had the opportunity—on two occasions, may I say—as Prime Minister to do something about what he proclaimed to be the greatest moral challenge of our time before he dropped it like a hot brick.

Every element of this motion is ideological claptrap laced with pseudoscientific hyperbole. The core proposition, the mover asserts, is that if Australia would only adopt a clean energy target in line with our obligations under the World Heritage Convention and stop the development of a single coal mine in Queensland, which is much hated by Labor's left, then we will save the Great Barrier Reef. This is preposterous stuff!

Australia's total greenhouse gas emissions were 1.3 per cent of the total global average in 2013, which was the last year for which we have reliable data. That equates to 580 million tonnes of CO2. The United States was 6,280 million tonnes. China was 11,735 million tonnes. By the way, in that one year of 2012-2013, China's growth in CO2 was 504 million tonnes, almost the same as Australia's total. So here we have just one country's annual increase in CO2 equating to almost Australia's total annual emissions. Our 1.3 per cent contribution therefore is miniscule. Any suggestion that what we do or do not do here in Australia is going to have an enormous impact—that by shutting just one coal mine in Australia is going to have an impact on the state of the Great Barrier Reef—is complete rubbish.

The extent to which there's an impact on global warming—an impact on emissions—is, in fact, by ensuring that our relatively cleaner coal is used and extracted from Northern Queensland through the Adani mine. It is better for the environment because the hundreds of millions of people in India who still do not have electricity are ultimately going to be using something, and we know for a fact that, if they do not use the cleaner coal from the Adani Carmichael mine, then they are going to be using poorer quality coal or other substitutes, which will have a net adverse impact on the environment.

There is no environmental ground to be opposing the Adani mine, as those opposite like to claim. At the end of the day, we should also be reminded the Great Barrier Reef has periodically faced challenges, from cyclones to crown-of-thorns starfish and other bleaching events, but there is no evidence to suggest that any of these events are due to man-made carbon dioxide, let alone coal. Vast sections of the Great Barrier Reef have been written off before and yet have recovered. Despite all the doom and gloom from those opposite, the Great Barrier Reef is not on the World Heritage Committee's in danger watch list. In stark contrast to Labor's own hapless record while they were in government, the Turnbull government continues to invest record funding to help protect the reef, including the joint $2 billion Reef 2050 Plan. Here we have the current government in defence and protection of the Great Barrier Reef, while those opposite are prepared to do anything to tear down the possibility of the Adani mine—a mine that is 300 kilometres inland from the Great Barrier Reef and a mine that promises not only a net environmental positive for the globe, because of the substitutes, but also enormous boon for the Queensland economy.

Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We are incredibly blessed in Australia to have such natural beauty spread right across the country. For eons, the Indigenous people of Australia have shared an intrinsic link with the land, its forms, its flora and fauna, and today we continue to share that connection with our natural environment. Every year, Australia's natural environment is shared with millions of tourists. The Great Barrier Reef, on its own, attracts two million visitors, supports 64,000 jobs and generates between $5 billion and $6 billion in tourism each year, and that is a very large sum of money.

As well as supporting tens of thousands of jobs, the reef supports an incredibly rich and diverse ecosystem. Stretching 2,300 kilometres, the Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest living structure and one of the seven natural wonders of the world. It's so large that you can see it from outer space, and anyone who has been to that natural wonder is in awe of the living structure that is the Great Barrier Reef. I've had the opportunity of snorkelling up there—the first time was with the late Chancellor Helmut Kohl and a visiting German delegation, and the word on their lips, time and time again, was 'schon, schon, schon.' I have also had the opportunity to go up to Lizard Island to snorkel there, which is just amazing and a miracle. Anyone who has snorkelled or scuba-dived or been to the reef knows that this is, understandably, one of the seven natural wonders of the world.

There are 600 types of soft and hard corals, more than 100 species of jellyfish, 3,000 varieties of molluscs, 500 species of worms, more than 1,500 types of fish, 133 varieties of sharks and rays and more than 30 species of whales and dolphins, and all of them call the reef home. Sadly, this incredible ecosystem is under threat. NASA ice cores drawn from Greenland, Antarctica and tropical mountain glaciers show that the earth's climate responds to changes in greenhouse gas levels. Their records also show that last year was the hottest year on record. The first global assessment of climate change impacts on coral, released by UNESCO, shows that, if current trends continue, global warming will increase by 4.3 degrees by 2100. As the assessment states, if we continue on this path, future generations will never get to see the great wonder that is the Great Barrier Reef.

This natural wonder is literally disappearing under our watch. Already the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority says that global coral bleaching over the last two years has led to widespread coral decline and habitat loss on the Great Barrier Reef. Two-thirds of the Great Barrier Reef has been bleached. During this period the reef faced above-average sea surface temperatures and the combined effects of climate change and a strong El Nino. Fortunately, the UN's assessment found that limiting the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees above preindustrial levels gives a chance of retaining coral-dominated communities.

If the government is serious about protecting the reef, it will adopt a clean energy target—the topic du jour at the moment. That is fully consistent with Australia's obligations within the World Heritage Convention to protect the Great Barrier Reef. The Great Barrier Reef narrowly avoided being listed as 'in danger' by the United Nations World Heritage Committee, as we've heard. The government, breathtakingly, has declared this announcement as a success, but we all know that the government has to agree with the committee before the reef can be put on the list in the first place. This means absolutely nothing if we don't act. Now is not the time to sit back as there is still so much to do to save the reef.

At a time when we should be taking real action on climate change, the Turnbull government is considering a $1 billion loan, through the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, to Adani to establish one of the world's largest coalmines. The coalmine is a significant concern for members in my community, as is the protection of the Great Barrier Reef. I have received hundreds of letters on the Adani coalmine, and I have also received nearly 1,000 letters on the Great Barrier Reef. It's clear that my electorate isn't the only one concerned about Adani. With strong opposition from the community, the government is breathtaking in its arrogance that it is even considering a $1 billion loan of taxpayers' money to a company that is owned by a billionaire.

John McVeigh (Groom, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to speak to this motion on coral bleaching, as a Queenslander who has worked and lived in coastal Queensland, and especially as one who has worked specifically on Great Barrier Reef initiatives, but this motion, unfortunately, presents a confusing amalgam of what are no doubt individually important points: those of global coral bleaching, clean energy target discussions, and the Carmichael mine and Adani. Since 2014, of the 29 World Heritage reef properties around the world, almost three-quarters were affected by bleaching, and the Great Barrier Reef, of course, is no exception.

Australia will meet and beat our Paris 2020 targets in relation to those sorts of challenges. Our 2030 target of a 26 to 28 per cent emissions reduction represents a halving of per capita emissions from 2005 levels. On this metric alone, Australia's target is amongst the strongest of any G20 country. Our government is leading the way in actively pursuing further action in relation to pressures affecting the reef. We've asked the Reef 2050 Plan Independent Expert Panel and the Reef 2050 Advisory Committee to provide advice on how to best respond to unprecedented pressures of all kinds. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority continues to focus on building the resilience of the reef at the same time, so the coalition is leading action to protect the reef. Together with the Queensland government, we've committed to spend over $2 billion protecting the reef over the next decade. This includes up to $1 billion through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to assist businesses delivering clean energy outcomes alongside other benefits for the reef; the establishment of the $210 million Reef Trust, predominantly focusing on water quality improvements by reducing sediment and nutrient run-off into reef waters—an area in which I've worked in the past; the culling of coral-bleaching crown-of-thorns starfish, through our $22.1 million investment in surveillance and control programs; $95 million in the National Landcare Program for Reef 2050 Plan implementation; and an additional $124 million over 10 years to strengthen the management of the reef through the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. On 5 July the World Heritage Committee unanimously endorsed Australia's Reef 2050 Plan and our progress in implementing it. They no longer have the reef on their in-danger watch list, and that certainly recognises the Reef 2050 Plan.

When Labor left office after six years, including three years in partnership with the Greens and Independents, five massive dredge disposal projects were being planned, and of course the reef was considered by the World Heritage Committee to be in danger. The coalition came into power, took unprecedented action and removed the plans, and hence we were removed from the endangered list.

On the theme of clean energy targets, the simple facts are that, following the Labor-inspired debacle in South Australia, the COAG Energy Council commissioned a study by Dr Alan Finkel. He provided 50 recommendations, 49 of which were accepted immediately, and that in relation to a clean energy target is being considered by the government. Those and other numerous moves by our government are evidence that we are focused on an affordable and reliable energy system.

The Adani project has received environmental approvals at both the state and Commonwealth level. The project is situated, as my colleagues have mentioned, approximately 300 kilometres west of the Great Barrier Reef, and mining will not have any direct impacts on the reef itself. On 14 October 2015 the Carmichael mine received federal approval. Subsequently it received state approvals, and the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility received an application from the Queensland Labor government for the Adani mine to receive concessional loan funding for the North Galilee Basin Rail project, which is being considered independently.

The simple facts are that the government has led the way in guidance of the Great Barrier Reef into the future. We have assessed Adani properly at both a federal and state level, and this promises a great deal for the future of Queensland, in particular.

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Vocational Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.