Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

In regards to the South-west Commonwealth Marine Reserves Network in Western Australia:

(1) A final marine reserve network proposal will be released to the public during 2012 following the Government's consideration of submissions received during the public consultation process conducted in 2011.

Once a final marine reserve network proposal has been released, there will be a separate process to formally proclaim the marine reserve network under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).

(2) The Western Australian Government has been consulted throughout the marine bioregional planning process and provided a written submission during the public consultation stage. In its submission, the Western Australian Government confirmed its general support for marine reserves and its commitment to working with the Australian Government on marine biodiversity protection. The submission of the Western Australian Government will be made available on the website of the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities.

(3) Australia's existing highly protected zones (within Commonwealth marine reserves), including within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and external territories, covers approximately 300 000 square kilometres. This figure excludes the areas of proposed highly protected zones across Australia as these have not been finalised. Currently the Chagos Islands have the largest single highly protected marine protected area in the world at over 500 000 square kilometres.

(4) Australia's marine reserves and their zoning have not been finalised. Therefore it is not possible to compare the size and extent of highly protected zones within the Australian system with what exists or what is proposed in other countries.

(5) The South-west marine reserve network proposal is being finalised following public consultation. All of the proposed marine reserves subject to public consultation were new areas.

(6) Work on the development of new marine reserves is being carried out by the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities. The public consultation process afforded all interested members of the community the opportunity to provide comments on the proposed South-west marine reserves.

(7) The formal consultation period invited submissions on a marine reserve proposal released by Government. The submissions that were received are being considered in revising the network. Where individuals and organisations have nominated, their submissions will be made publicly available on the department's website. It is anticipated that this will occur shortly.

(8) The reserve design is based on the Goals and Principles for the Establishment of the National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas (NRSMPA) in Commonwealth waters which were finalised in 2007 by the former Government, drawing on lessons learnt through the earlier development of marine reserves in the South-East region.

The department's website has a list of online datasets that have been used in developing marine bioregional plans http://www.environment.gov.au/coasts/mbp/. The list includes datasets from CSIRO and Geosciences Australia. The Goals and Principles for the Establishment of the National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas are also on the department's website.

(9) Key inputs into the process include: