E&OE….
Topics: Great Barrier Reef
STEVE AUSTIN:
That’s just one excerpt from Life on the Reef and follows those who live in the most extraordinary places on planet earth. Greg Hunt is Australia’s Federal Minister for the Environment. Greg Hunt, good morning to you.
GREG HUNT:
Good morning Steve.
STEVE AUSTIN:
Did you watch it?
GREG HUNT:
I’ve seen the previews. I’ve got a summary and I’m going to take a video and watch it with my kids who are nine and five on the weekend. I was travelling last night but I was well aware of the preparation and what it does talk about and what it does show is the fact that this is a majestic place, it’s not just the Barrier Reef, it’s the world’s Great Barrier Reef and for me, the protection, the improvement, the recovery is the work of my professional life. It’s a deep, powerful passion.
STEVE AUSTIN:
Tell me – give me your take first of all on what you know of the series if you wouldn’t mind, then I want to get into some legislative matters?
GREG HUNT:
Look, my view is that from all of the discussions we’ve had with our Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, it’s about recognising and celebrating the biological diversity and the majestic nature of the reef. Also, the diversity of people who live up and down the coast, the million people who live along the coast of an area the size of Germany and then it’s about some of the challenges which we have to be honest about. Of course there are challenges, 100 years of farming practices and more.
The nature of the runoff from – in terms of sediment, nitrogen, pesticides, which are all reducing significantly, but we need to be aware of those things. So, I think a balanced program sets out both the majesty, the humanity but also the challenges.
STEVE AUSTIN:
I want to give you the opportunity because you’re the Federal Minister for the Environment to detail or just give me in point form what the Federal Government is doing to protect the reef? And then I want to go in and ask you some specific challenges to that.
GREG HUNT:
Alright. In short, four big things. Firstly, water quality, the number one threat to the reef in the immediate term. A $40 million Reef Trust to – as part of a $2 billion program to reduce – as we’ve seen, the sediment figures by 11%. The nitrogen figures by 16%, the pesticide figures by 28%. That’s the single most important immediate thing.
Secondly, linked with that is the ending of 100 years of practice and dredge disposal, on our watch in our time and something which, you know, in three decades as I’m sitting on the rocking chair, I hopefully will look back at and say that may have been the most important thing I’ve ever done in my professional life. In addition…
STEVE AUSTIN:
Does that include the…
GREG HUNT:
…the Crown of Thorns…
STEVE AUSTIN:
…Abbot Point coal terminal expansion?
GREG HUNT:
Well, actually of course, as you well know, this wasn’t our project, it wasn’t our creation, we did receive it and on our watch, we’ve moved it back to being a proposal for onshore. It’s now with the Queensland Government to determine what they want to do but we have committed to a permanent ban on dredge disposal in the marine park for the first time in history and forever and I don’t think that will ever be reversed.
Crown of Thorns, a doubling of funds with more to come and the creation of a single shot treatment which is making a big difference. Dugong and turtle protection legislation, tripling of penalties and then the immense project of recovering Raine Island as one of the great turtle rookeries of the world.
And then from there we go to climate change and the fact that we now have a $2.5 billion Emissions Reduction Fund that we are on track to achieve our targets, that we’ve committed $200 million to the Green Climate Fund globally and that we will play a significant role in achieving what I believe will be an important global agreement.
STEVE AUSTIN:
My guest is the Federal Minister for the Environment, Greg Hunt. This is 612 ABC Brisbane, we’re talking with the Minister on the backdrop of the first part of a three-part series on ABC TV last night called Life on the Reef. So for you, the four key points: water quality, ending the dumping of dredge spoil on – in reef waters, now on land, Crown of Thorns starfish funding and the fourth one was – I’m sorry, my apologies.
GREG HUNT:
Well it’s dugong and turtle protection…
STEVE AUSTIN:
Oh, sorry yes, sorry.
GREG HUNT:
…in other words wildlife and then of course the long term work with regards to reducing our emissions and climate change.
STEVE AUSTIN:
So, let me go to some of the local issues here in Queensland. So, you’ve committed to not the dumping of dredge spoil in the Barrier Reef waters at the Abbot Point coal terminal in North Queensland near Bowen, so that’s now back in the hands of the State Government to sign off on that?
GREG HUNT:
So, in fact, we inherited five major dredge disposal proposals for the marine park. That’s down to zero and more than that, I have committed to and we are currently preparing the regulation which will have the force of law to ban any dredge disposal in the marine park forever and I think this is a profoundly important thing.
It’s far more than anybody had expected that could ever occur. It has had some push back from those in industry and ports and others but in the end they’ve accepted that this is a decision to which I am absolutely and utterly committed. It’s going to happen on our watch, it’s ending a hundred years of practice and so it’s not just one project or even five projects, it’s a permanent ban forever.
STEVE AUSTIN:
When would that take place, when would that become law? In other words no coal or resources company would apply to dump in the Barrier Reef knowing that it’s just against the rules.
GREG HUNT:
Correct. And so I don’t expect, well, that’s going to be released within the coming weeks. I do not expect that there will be any further disposal of capital dredge material in the marine park ever again.
STEVE AUSTIN:
My guest is the Federal Minister for the Environment Greg Hunt. Let me ask you about cyclones. When I talk to environmentalists they say look the problem with – yes cyclones damage the reef, the two big ones are cyclone damage and Crown of Thorns. We know what you’re doing with the funding of the Crown of Thorns, it’s been a problem for a long time, but cyclones are one they say – cyclones are a difficult one because they argue that increased cyclonic activity is the long term result of global warming.
In other words we’ve got the long term results of global warming, in other words we’ve affected the climate and what’s doing this is our love affair with fossil fuels. Can you just address that if you can please Minister? In other words your allowance of fossil fuels and the – against the global trend particularly of coal – is what’s partly facilitating the frequency of cyclones.
GREG HUNT:
Well firstly in terms of climate change, it’s real, it’s significant, it’s important, it’s a challenge for every reef around the world. What we’re seeing is the singular question – are we reducing our emissions and can the world reduce its emissions? I think we can do both and I know that we are doing that in Australia. In terms of fossil fuels, these aren’t our projects, these of course are Queensland projects created previously by the Queensland Labor Government, none of them have been proposed or developed by the Federal Government.
So we can only act under the law that we receive. But having said that, having said that, what can we do to deal with the problem? Firstly achieve our own targets in Australia and at the end of March, in early April, we’ll receive the next report on Australia’s trajectories for our emissions. I know that they will have come down from where they were when we came into Government. I know that the gap some years ago which we had to fill was deemed to be about 750 million tonnes, in theory at the moment it’s a gap over eight years of 420. It’s going to come down from that.
We are achieving our goals and we’ll achieve our international targets and then we will be part of a good global agreement with the United States and China, with the EU because the best protection for the world is not any one type of fuel or other it’s the net global emissions. We’ve just led a Rainforest Recovery Summit which Australia hosted and as part of that we committed to the ending of deforestation in the Asia Pacific region and the halving of deforestation within five years.
That has a profound regional impact in terms of biodiversity but is a huge contribution towards reducing global emissions and again is something Australians and Queenslanders can be rightly proud of. We are leading the world in rainforest recovery and protection initiatives.
STEVE AUSTIN:
I want to ask you one more question Minister then I’ll let you go. The actual management of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority – many years ago I was actually in Townsville and there was predominantly scientists and people actually had knowledge of the Reef but after lobbying of business and industry for many years the actual management of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority is very different now and it looks heavily slanted towards business.
Can I ask you – is there any feeling that really there should be more marine science expertise on GBRMPA rather than the predominance of corporate interests on the board of management of GBRMPA?
GREG HUNT:
Well the first thing is we haven’t made any appointments to the board because they were fixed by the previous government. The second thing is to be fair I’ve got to say that the executive chairman of GBRMPA Russell Reichelt is one of not just Australia’s but the world’s foremost marine and reef and coral scientists. Really a global treasure and when you bring into account what the Australian Institute of Marine Science is doing, then I think that’s tremendous.
We’ve just funded a $30 million plus tropical water quality hub, the first such thing in Australia’s history which will work with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority with AIMS – the Institute of Marine Science – with the RRRC in north Queensland which is looking at reef and rainforest and so we are adding to the scientific capacity and expertise by bringing these parties together.
You can always do more but that $30 million of injection into reef, science and tropical water quality science I think is an extremely important investment for precisely the reasons you’ve set out.
STEVE AUSTIN:
I appreciate you coming on this morning Minister, thanks for your time.
GREG HUNT:
Thanks very much.
STEVE AUSTIN:
Greg Hunt is the Federal Environment Minster, talking with the Minister on the back of the first part of the three part series that was shown on ABC TV last night called Life on the Reef.
(ENDS)