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

I would suggest that the minister has just misled the chamber with his very inflammatory comment: 'trampled over communities'. There was an extensive consultation process. The fact is that the coalition just do not like the fact that the world-leading marine reserve system was put in place in this country, and they got a bit of feedback, so they decided that they would trash the management plans, which effectively trash the marine protected areas around this country. There was no trampling over communities. These marine parks have very high levels of supports. The fact is that, while they are still reviewing the process, our reefs are bleaching. One of the best ways we can help those reefs recover is to get the marine parks back in place and take the pressure off them so that we can stop the impact as much as possible. The fact is that some of the reefs may actually die. Sometimes they recover and sometimes they do not. This will help them recover. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.