Tyron Whitten (WA, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I speak on document 1 at item 13, the marine survey of the Bunbury continental shelf, on behalf of the Western Australians who are concerned about the proposed destruction of our beautiful Geographe Bay. The offshore wind zone in Geographe Bay is a whale superhighway. Whales are migrating through the zone for nine months of the year. Well over 50,000 humpbacks are migrating through the deeper waters of the offshore wind zone, and a number of these are observed nursing in Geographe Bay. This huge number of whales are migrating through waters further than 20 kilometres offshore, in depths of 30 to 60 metres, right in the offshore zone. Pygmy blue whales and southern right whales are endangered and are using Geographe Bay as a birthing and nursery area. The southern right whale has a gestation period of 16 months, not 12 months, as has been recently discovered. This is the worst possible place to be considering the construction of a wind farm.

The department of the environment has given the green light to this marine survey of the Bunbury continental shelf. They did this by declaring the marine survey not a controlled action under the EPBC Act 1999. The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act is there to protect our environment in situations such as this. Public servants in the department have disregarded the risk involved with the marine survey mapping, which uses sound levels that cause harm and death to whales, in their rush to support the building of offshore wind turbines in the middle of a whale superhighway and birthing zone. When an activity is declared not a controlled action, it means that no-one will be held accountable for the harm done.

I'll bring your attention to page 5, item 12(d), which mentions 'Multichannel and single channel high-resolution seismic profilers (boomer or sparker sources)'. A recent report from the USA has brought attention to these survey methods exceeding 160 decibels. Whales and dolphins use echolocation to navigate the ocean, and sound levels recorded of this type of proposed marine surveying has been shown to cause deafness in whales and dolphins, which results in their death as they cannot navigate their surroundings. Reports on the marine surveying methods used recorded excess noise levels that exceed the whales' spectrum of hearing, meaning that the whales are not even aware that they are going deaf from the underwater noise until it's too late. Whales cannot avoid a damaging level of noise that is outside of their frequency of hearing.

The WA reef system of the Bunbury continental shelf is as unique as the Great Barrier Reef area. It is also home to the famous WA rock lobster. The ocean substrate is home to many species of fish, shark, squid and octopus. The risk to the WA rock lobster industry from marine surveying in this area is extremely concerning. I have asked the Minister for the Environment and Water, Minister Watt, to review this decision made by the department of the environment so that proper due diligence can be carried out. I have not received an acknowledgment of my letter or a reply to my request. I submitted an FOI request asking for the documentation involved in making this critical decision, and it was refused. It was refused by the same public officer that made the decision that the marine survey is not a controlled action.

I share my community's concern that, should this offshore wind project be allowed to progress without any transparency, accountability or scrutiny, there will be irreversible damage done in our oceans. I have one question for those on the other side of this chamber. Where is your evidence that repeated high-decibel underwater sound does not cause whale deafness and, therefore, their premature deaths? The offshore wind zone is being fast-tracked and green-lit in this Labor government's reckless pursuit of net zero—a pursuit that is costing Australians $1.5 trillion. Western Aussies have every right to be outraged about the threat to our pristine Indian Ocean.

I will not let up about my disgust regarding the manner in which the valid concerns of Western Aussies are being treated by this Labor government. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.