Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party, Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

Firstly, I reject the premise of that question. Minister Ley, the Minister for the Environment, has said on multiple occasions that climate change is the biggest threat to the reef. But the World Heritage Committee is not the forum to make a point about climate change. Moreover, there are more than 80 World Heritage properties that UNESCO has identified as being under threat from climate change, which we all agree is a global problem that requires a global multilateral solution. If UNESCO had decided to list all of them, then that policy would potentially be understandable. But to pick only one out of 80 is a subversion of process. This decision and the motivations behind it are indeed baffling. It sends a very poor message to countries that are not making the investments in reef protection that Australia is.