Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

This Bill makes minor technical amendments to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975 to rectify an unintended consequence of the sunsetting regime established under the Legislation Act 2003.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act provides for the protection and conservation of the environment, biodiversity and heritage values through zoning, issuing of permissions and implementation of plans of management in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. The amendments made by the Bill will prevent plans of management that have been made under the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act from being inadvertently revoked if regulations giving effect to these plans are repealed and remade to address sunsetting. Plans of management are an important environmental management tool to ensure that activities within areas of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park are managed on the basis of ecologically sustainable use. The Bill will allow the protective measures in the plans to continue to apply.