Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) | Hansard source

I'm only doing this because the failure of our amendments to get up has changed the voting intention of the Labor Party. We would have supported the motion with our amendments, but, as they've been unsuccessful, we will not be supporting this motion. The government voted against our amendments because they want a political inquiry, not an inquiry into the scientific facts or their performance in managing the reef. Is it any wonder that under this government the health of the reef has been downgraded from poor to very poor. Deloitte Access Economics estimated that the Great Barrier Reef has an economic social and icon asset value of $56 billion, supporting 64,000 jobs and contributing $6.4 billion to the Australian economy, but this government wants to put that economic and natural asset in danger. This follows the outrageous decision to hand $444 million of public money without a tender to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, and now, unfortunately, we won't be able to examine that any closer.