Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

his colleague was heard in silence. I thank you for that, Mr President, because you are absolutely right. If it is truly the situation that foreign owned ships, as against Australian ships, leaving Australian ports cannot be regulated and cannot be made safe—and, remember, this ship could well have been off the Great Barrier Reef if there had been a day or two’s difference; as it is, it has created huge damage to the magnificent beaches of Moreton Island and, further north, Bribie Island and the Sunshine Coast—then that situation should be changed. That is our responsibility. That is a Greens point of view. And that is why it has been of enormous value to Queensland to have a  member of the Greens on the floor of the Queensland parliament—to stand up for issues which are ignored by both the big parties and to also bring forward the job-rich prospective future which Sir Nicholas Stern, one of the world’s great economists—