Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister has a lot to say. He's a talker but he's not a very good listener. He has gone silent on the New South Wales Liberals' plan to build a cruise ship terminal at Yarra Bay in the seat of Kingsford Smith. He's ignoring the voice of the people. On 21 November a petition of over 10,000 signatures was tabled in the New South Wales parliament. The message was clear from the members of the community that I represent. The people of our area do not want a cruise ship terminal in Yarra Bay and Botany Bay. They've had enough of the Liberals in Canberra and in Macquarie Street not listening, and they want the member for Cook, the Prime Minister, to get off his backside and do something about this crazy proposal.

Once again, the Bidjigal people, whose ancestors inherited the waters of Botany Bay and lived on those shores for tens of thousands of years, have not been consulted at all by the New South Wales government about this proposal to build a cruise ship terminal in their area. They say that this will do massive damage to local fishing areas and to the local shores of Botany Bay. Once again, it shows the level of disrespect that the Liberal Party has for the traditional owners of land and for the Bidjigal people in the community that I represent.

This proposal will also do massive environmental damage. Botany Bay would have to be dredged on the northern side of the bay for the third time. For the third time, they would have to dredge Botany Bay. It's home to many protected marine species, and they would no doubt be wiped out if that occurred—let alone the traffic congestion that would come to local roads if a massive, half-a-billion-dollar cruise ship terminal was built in this area. It simply won't work. Anyone who has seen the big swell that gets into Botany Bay and the waves that get halfway up the breakwall, where the oil refinery is, would know that, if you put a cruise ship there, it would easily smash into that wall and do massive damage.

The Liberal Party has to listen to our community. This is a ridiculous proposal. It's time that Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister—as the member for Cook, whose electorate looks over Botany Bay; who understands the significance of Botany Bay, its heritage, its environment and its Indigenous culture; and who understands the importance of this to local communities—stopped this ridiculous proposal. I am calling on the Prime Minister. I have written to him and asked him to intervene and look at Garden Island as the preferred site for a cruise ship terminal in Sydney. That is what the people of Kingsford Smith want.