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

Today I'd to bring the Senate's attention to an important article published in the prestigious journal Nature just yesterday, 'Continent-wide declines in shallow reef life over a decade of ocean warming'. One of the key scientists who authored this report, Professor Graham Edgar—who, by the way, was the Tasmanian Scientist of the Year just recently—wrote about this article in the Conversation and the Guardian just yesterday. Professor Edgar says:

Marine heatwaves are damaging reef ecosystems around Australia, but while the tropical north has received the lion's share of the attention to date, we equally need to worry about the temperate south.

That's partly because the Great Southern Reef is of immense biodiversity value. Species found here are found nowhere else in the world. Even their distant relatives are long gone. It's also because these temperate reefs are suffering even more from heatwaves than the Great Barrier Reef.

The Great Southern Reef, for senators who aren't unaware, is the name for reef systems that stretch from southern New South Wales all the way down through Victoria, Tasmania, across to South Australia and around to the southern tip of Western Australia. Professor Edgar's report talks about the surveys that they have done of marine life. They have studied over 1,057 common shallow reef species from across nearly 1,636 sites around Australia. He and his team have been studying this for over 30 years. He talks in this report about very troubling and concerning declines in habitat, biodiversity and species. I would urge all senators to read this report. It's certainly a very sobering reminder of the reality outside the Canberra bubble, where we spend a lot of our time.