Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very happy to name him. His name is David Wachenfeld. I will send the link to you, Senator Macdonald, so you can read it yourself. Get your head out of the sand, you and your government, and do something about climate change and the Great Barrier Reef.

As chair of the environment committee that went to the Great Barrier Reef, I pushed the committee to go diving on the reef. Senator Macdonald directly threatened me that he would get stories run in the Queensland press about me taking a joyride when all I wanted the committee to do was stick their head under the water and see the coral for themselves, which is exactly what I did. Do you know what Senator Macdonald said to me, Acting Deputy President? He said: 'If you want to see coral, go to the AIMS laboratory and have a look at it there. They are growing perfectly good corals in the laboratory.' That's what he said the committee should do.

This is the quality of the people that the LNP have in this parliament on one of the biggest issues of our time, an issue that will impact future generations of Australians. This is the quality of the people—the best they can do in a debate on the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and how we need to enhance its effectiveness. He comes in here and attacks scientists, a coward punch, because those scientists don't agree with his climate-denying view of the world. An absolute bloody disgrace—that's what he is and it's about time someone called him out on it.

The reef is in deep trouble. Fifty per cent of the corals are now scientifically classified as having been bleached, and that excludes the damage to the corals done in the zone by Cyclone Debbie. I went to four different sites and saw it for myself. If you don't believe climate change and warming oceans are impacting the Great Barrier Reef, go and stick your head under the water and have a look for yourself. I challenge every politician in this parliament to do exactly that: go up there and have a look for yourself.

It's not just the Great Barrier Reef. In my home state of Tasmania, the south-eastern section of Tasmania and the Tasman Sea is the global hot spot for warming oceans on this planet. We have just lost our giant kelp forests, a 10,000-year-old ecosystem that stretched from the north-east tip of Tasmania to the south. They are gone. They were older than the Great Barrier Reef. They were nurseries to so much marine life and biodiversity. They are gone because of warming waters, storms and invasive species—very similar pressures and stressors that the Great Barrier Reef is facing.

For Senator Macdonald to come in here on behalf of the Liberal Party and claim—this could the biggest quote of the year, or the biggest I've ever seen in this place—that 'the Great Barrier Reef is going fine' is an absolute lie. It's a dangerous lie because it underlies the action that we need to take. I know this because I chaired the Senate committee that took significant evidence on this. The report is there for anyone who wants to read it. We need to do everything we can across the board to help the Great Barrier Reef. Senator Macdonald said the coral reef was cooling on the particular day we happened to be up in his hometown in Cairns.

The coral reef is cooling? We've had unprecedented back-to-back bleaching because of record water temperatures. February is the critical month for this year—fingers crossed that we don't get a third consecutive bleaching event. No-one thought it was even possible we could get two in a row. The models were predicting that that couldn't happen until 2045, yet it happened. These corals will not recover. It takes 15 years for them to recover. The dare that Senator Macdonald put to you in this chamber today is that I wouldn't talk about the $60 million—$60 million!—that this government is putting towards the Great Barrier Reef. I ask every senator in here and the Australian people: what is the Great Barrier Reef worth? What is it worth to you? Just in tangible economic measurements, it is in the billons of dollars. As an economist, I know too well that even though we try and price ecosystem services we can't possibly even begin to value the Great Barrier Reef for its biodiversity. Who can even put a price and value on what's important, the thousands of creatures that rely on the reef for their survival?

It's not just the reef. It's the rainforests and the mangroves. They're all part of the same ecosystem. If the reef dies, if those corals crumble—which they will after they've bleached—it removes cover for the thousands of species that are protected from predators. It will impact the rainfall over the rainforest, because the reef is actually what creates the rain, and the rain creates the mangroves. The mangroves are the nurseries for small fish and they are essential for crocodiles, which actually protect the small fish. That's why it is such a successful symbiotic relationship and one of the greatest ecosystems on this planet.

David Attenborough this year is going to be releasing in Australia Blue Planet II. It was the leading TV series in the UK last year. The rest of the world cares more about the Great Barrier Reef than most Australians—certainly more than Senator Macdonald. People are waking up to this, and they want us to do something about it. I'm sorry if I am so fired up and passionate about this, but I am sick to death of hearing the crap that I hear in here from climate change deniers like Senator Macdonald. I think that Australians are as well. I'm sick of scientists being attacked by people who are funding them. It's just not acceptable.

I digress. Let me get back to the bill. Senator Ruston, the minister at the table, will be pleased to know that the Greens will be supporting this bill. This bill will enhance the authority and functions of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. It will replace an existing full-time chair chairperson with a part-time chairperson position. It will establish an additional part-time member position, bringing the total membership of the authority to seven—that includes the chairperson and the CEO—and it will:

Strengthen requirements for the appointment and termination of members by: specifying the general skills required; limiting the number of consecutive terms served by an individual member; providing for termination of members by the Governor-General for underperformance—

I'll be interested to see what benchmarks are going to be put in place for that underperformance—

and reducing the potential for conflicts of interest. If this wasn't in non-contro, Senator Ruston, I would take you into the committee stage to find out exactly what those performance benchmarks will be, but I will ask you instead outside the chamber.

Importantly, the parliamentary briefing that we've been given acknowledges the reason for this legislation. The authority's key functions are to:

… advise and make recommendations to the Minister in relation to the care and development of the Marine Park … zoning plans and plans of management …

It acknowledges that, while they're managing the Marine Park collaboratively with the Queensland government, the review into the governance of these arrangements has found that the scale and workload of the chairperson position has become 'too large for a single person' and:

The legislated size of the Authority and background requirements of the … members limited the capacity to provide local, national and international perspectives and diversity of expertise required …

This is what I'd like to finish my contribution on. I think this is what got Senator Macdonald so fired up in our Senate inquiry when he came up to Townsville and Cairns: we might only be 1.2 per cent of global emissions, but of course Senator Macdonald forgot to tell you that, if you include coal exports, we're up around nearly 5 per cent. We are the Great Barrier Reef's custodians. If we are going to get action on reducing emissions, if we're going to get countries around the world to meet their Paris targets, if we're going to show any leadership on the climate debate, it fascinates me when people like Senator Macdonald infer that we shouldn't do anything on cutting emissions because we're only 1.2 per cent. I believe in obligations, as I'm sure Senator Paterson in this chamber does. If I choose not to pay my tax because I contribute only 0.0000-something per cent of the tax taken in this country, that's not acceptable. How is it acceptable to be saying that because we're only a minor offender or because my offence is only minor it doesn't matter? It all matters. This is what got me fired up and Senator Macdonald fired up during the inquiry.

Last year the World Heritage in Danger committee looked at listing the Great Barrier Reef—and believe me, this is the main game from here on in. I understand, and it was confirmed through questioning through the Senate inquiry, that the tourism industry lobbied against an endangered listing because they felt it might turn away visitors to the Great Barrier Reef, although we had witnesses saying there was no evidence to support that at all—quite the opposite, in other cases. But I was told by someone very senior, whom I won't name in here, that the reason the Great Barrier Reef was not put on the World Heritage in Danger list was that if the Barrier Reef was put on the in-danger list then nearly every coral reef system on this planet would need to be included as well.

The Great Barrier Reef is so significant, but another 40 or so reefs are listed. And I've gone and done my homework on this. I've been to Japan and talked to them about their coral reef systems. They are all in significant trouble. They feed nearly half a billion people on this planet. They rely on these reefs for their livelihoods. No bigger signal could we send the whole world than to get our reefs put on the in-danger list. I can't think of a bigger thing we could do to actually get this world and governments around this world to take action on climate than to sound the loudest possible siren, ring the loudest possible bell on the fact that we are warming our oceans and destroying the ecosystems within these oceans. And ultimately that will backfire on us—and not just the tourism industry but also the fisheries industry.

We heard evidence that there are already impacts of coral bleaching and warming on commercial and recreational fishing industries on the Great Barrier Reef. I have seen this firsthand in my home state of Tasmania. Warming waters in Tasmania not only have caused enormous problems for the salmon industry, which Senator Ruston will be well aware of, but also have helped cause outbreaks of viruses that have been devastating for scallops, as well as Pacific oyster mortality syndrome. We've seen significant problems with the productivity of our abalone industries and our rock lobster industries. People who are ignorant, like Senator Macdonald, believe climate change is just a greenie thing. Well, I've been saying to people until I was black and blue that this is not just about ecosystems, biodiversity and greenie issues; this is about your livelihood and the livelihoods of people who fish the oceans, who depend on it. Oddly enough, if Senator Macdonald actually understood—and I do believe he actually does care about the fishers—he might get it and understand that if we don't take the strongest possible action we are letting these people down.

This is not just a political thing for me. I know that in my home state of Tasmania this is resonating. People are seeing it. I have been along the coastline in the last 12 months. Everyone knows I'm a surfer; they know I'm a diver. And I do a bit of fishing myself. Everyone I talk to is telling me about changes they see in the ocean. And this is happening all around the world. To me, it's the first real, tangible sign of a changing climate—and a negative one, at that. Then we can add the fact that the ocean dictates our weather patterns, such as extreme weather and drought. Warming oceans and changes in ocean temperatures are impacting on us right across this country. If you need a bigger signal that we need to take action, put our differences aside and actually get on with doing everything that we can, just look at what is going on in the oceans.

This is very important context for this bill—I'm nearly finished, Senator Ruston. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority co-manages with the Queensland government many of these issues. It was involved in the List of World Heritage in Danger discussions and assessments, and there are more coming. We need good people who can make good decisions. I understand why some in the tourism industry don't like this. I've had tourism operators say to me that it's too late. They openly spoke at our Senate inquiry about what they call 'last-chance tourism.'

It's better to make a fuss about this now and get some action than lose everything for future generations. I'm sorry it is a hard decision to make, but it is a really important one. The Greens and I fully support these changes, and I will say one more time that $60 million for what Senator Macdonald called 'remedial action' is nothing but a bandaid solution. We've had very good scientists say, 'Thanks for the money, we appreciate it, but it may save one area if it works, an area where there is a platform where divers or boats are coming.' It may help us, but this is the biggest ecosystem on the planet. You can see it from space. It stretches for thousands of kilometres. The only thing we can do is to continue to take action on climate, because the rest of it, getting rid of the starfish—