Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

This motion is a complete nonsense and has so many misrepresentations of the facts that when I read it I was simply astounded—for example, the suggestion that the government is making the Coral Sea a no-go zone for Australians but other countries can fish there. It is largely a multipurpose zone, not a green zone. Again, this misrepresents and tries to run down marine protected areas wherever possible and does not acknowledge that marine protected areas are absolutely essential for the future of the marine environment and for the very future of fish stocks. This continual misrepresentation of marine protected areas and their values shows how the coalition does not seek the protection of the environment and does not care about the future of our fish stocks in this country or, in fact, world fish stocks, because that is what this proposal does. (Time expired)