Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Our precious Great Barrier Reef is not just an incredible environmental accent. It is also an economic powerhouse. A report released last week confirms the reef is worth $95 billion. It contributes $9 billion to our economy every single year and supports 77,000 jobs. The majority of these jobs are in tourism in regional Queensland. I know that's hard for those opposite to hear. It's inconvenient for them to recognise that regional Queenslanders' jobs rely on the Great Barrier Reef. If the reef were a private business, it would be Australia's fifth-largest employer—bigger than any bank, bigger than BHP. And the biggest risk to all of those jobs is, of course, climate change.

This report must have gone unread by those opposite. Those jobs are going ignored. A week later, what are they doing over there on that side of the chamber? They are walking away from net zero. They're walking away from protecting our reef and the tens of thousands of jobs that it supports. They're putting the reef at risk in real terms and reputationally. Those opposite claim that they represent the regions, but Queenslanders know that our regions will be impacted first and worst by climate change.

The LNP are in a shambles: splits, dummy-spits and, of course, leadership spills to come. But the only jobs that the Liberal and National parties are fighting to protect are their own. The only endangered species the LNP have their eyes on is that of the Leader of the Opposition, Sussan Ley. While the LNP are focused on themselves, our government is getting on with the job of delivering the energy transition we need, protecting jobs in regional Queensland and giving businesses the certainty that they need to invest.