Andrew McLachlan (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I support World Heritage listing for the Great Australian Bight. It's one of the best and most intact temperate marine ecosystems in the world, with amazing biodiversity. It's globally significant.

How did I get to this point? Well, there was a risk, when I was in state parliament, of BP drilling in the bight. That may even have found some favour with certain Labor members across the aisle at the time, but the Liberal Party consulted at the time and it did not find favour. The main risk was that an oil spill would have destroyed all our seas. It was a catastrophic risk. It did not find favour with the communities that live off the sea. Indeed, our opposition was led by our local Liberal members.

Now I find myself fortunate enough to be in the Senate. During my journeys around the state, I met Heath Joske, a surfer extraordinaire and climate activist, who lives in Streaky Bay and managed to convince the AGM of the Norwegian company Equinor to not continue its exploration or to drill in the bight. It was a great victory for those of us who are conservationists and environmentalists.

The South Australian Liberal Party went to the last election with a clear policy position to seek World Heritage listing for the bight, but there was a spectre on the horizon that we did not see, and that was the National Party, which made a declaration during the campaign that it would seek drilling in the Bight. It was unhelpful, and it will be opposed by every Liberal in South Australia. I find it incongruous that the National Party doesn't like wind farms offshore but somehow would like oil extraction on a large platform. I can't join those dots. Perhaps I can be assisted at some point. The community that live on those coasts are very aware of the risk to their natural environment. We have just gone through an algal bloom. In fact, it's still there, ravaging our seas and putting great stress on our communities. We do not need a campaign to continue to explore or drill. Some of our most important industries—including our fishing industry in tuna—are there, and they are distraught that this may be raised by the National Party.

So I call upon the Labor government, both in South Australia and federally, to get on with it. Let's get it moving. Let's put South Australians' minds at ease that their natural environment will not be destroyed by the large fossil fuel companies.