E&OE….
Topics: Ban on capital dredge disposal in the Great Barrier Reef, Renewable Energy Target, climate change.
GREG HUNT:
Today I want to announce that the Australian Government will use the force of law to ban dredge disposal from capital projects in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. This is delivering on the commitment we made in November.
It follows from the decision of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority in December to seek community views; it follows from the order I issued in January to compel the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to bring forward a regulation to ban capital dredge disposal in the Marine Park forever. And today what we are issuing is the draft regulatory statement which will ban capital dredge disposal in the Marine Park forever.
You might ask, what does this cover? It covers not just future proposals, it covers not just present but also any pre-existing proposals or applications for the dumping of spoil in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park area. So this will end the practice, which has been going on for 100 years, in perpetuity.
I want to say this as well, the Commonwealth covers 99% of the Great Barrier Reef through the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. This law will cover 99% of the area. The remaining 1% is covered by Queensland, through Queensland Ports, and I am delighted that the Queensland Government has indicated that they will also take legal steps to cover the gap. So with the Commonwealth covering 99%, and Queensland covering 1%, 100% of the World Heritage Area will have in place a permanent ban on dumping of dredge disposal.
I want to put this very briefly into a broader context. There are three parts to what we’re doing to protect, and preserve, and enhance the majestic Great Barrier Reef over coming decades. Firstly, we’ve done the scientific work, the Outlook Report, which has been adopted by the IUCN as the model for the management and reporting globally of world heritage natural properties.
Secondly, we have done the policy work, which is about establishing the strategic assessment, which is arguably one of the most comprehensive environmental policy frameworks established anywhere in the world, and we have done the State Party Report, which has been released, and we are now in the process of preparing for public release with the Queensland Government on a completely cooperative basis, the Long-Term Reef 2050 Plan, which looks out over three and a half decades.
And so together that leads to the third part, which is the actions. Today we are announcing and releasing the dredge ban. It covers the full Great Barrier Reef Marine Park area of 345,000 square kilometres. The additional 3000 square kilometres, which cover the ports area, will be dealt with by Queensland. Therefore, 100% of the entire World Heritage Area property will be covered.
But we’ve also gone a lot further. As anybody who looks at this knows, the science says that water quality is critical. We’ve already seen turnarounds in water quality of an 11% reduction in sediment, an over 15% reduction in nitrogen, a 28% reduction in pesticides, but we can and will go much further.
Which is why, between the Commonwealth and Queensland, we’ll be investing $2 billion to first and foremost reduce water quality impacts over the coming decade, to improve water quality, to make sure that the environment is better; and then we are taking direct steps to remove some of the pests.
We’ve recently doubled crown-of-thorns funding. The breakthrough with the one-stop hit on crown-of-thorns starfish has been extraordinary and has received worldwide attention, and as we go forward there will be additional funding for crown-of-thorns management.
But today’s a very significant day. I think that this ban will stay in perpetuity. It’s been a hundred years in the making, but I am pleased and delighted that it’s occurred on our watch, and pleased and delighted that Queensland is adding to it with the additional 1% coverage for the ports areas.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Hunt, this doesn’t apply- this ban doesn’t apply to maintenance dredging though, does it?
GREG HUNT:
No, none of the agencies have indicated that that was desirable because of the safety risks, that if you were not to carry out minor maintenance dredging you would risk a ship strike and a catastrophic environmental outcome. Indeed the international organisations of the IUCN and the World Heritage Committee have made that point directly to me.
JOURNALIST:
So existing operating ports along the Queensland coast can do maintenance dredging and still dump in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park?
GREG HUNT:
Well I think you’ll find that there are no significant plans. This is about the major proposals and there is a radical once-in-a-century change here.
JOURNALIST:
But maintenance dredging is still required in existing ports every to keep the channels deep enough and all that kind of stuff.
GREG HUNT:
Well this is acknowledged by all as the right step forward and it’s never been argued by any significant international organisation or domestic agency that anything else should be required. I wouldn’t move the goal posts today. What people had been seeking for some decades is this moment in history.
To change that situation would be to risk a catastrophic environmental outcome, which I am not willing to do, which the IUCN and UNESCO have said not only isn’t necessary but would be counterproductive and dangerous. This is about making the change that everybody has sought. And to try to set a different boundary would be to risk a very dangerous environmental outcome with a ship strike which nobody would ever want to see happen.
JOURNALIST:
Why not extend it out as far as the World Heritage Area itself, past the Marine Park? Why not expand the ban that far?
GREG HUNT:
Well no we deal with, as the Commonwealth, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park area. Let me just step away from the microphone, I apologise. All of this area is covered. There are tiny little red dots up and down the coast, in fact there are five little red dot areas, those are the Queensland ports governed by Queensland law. We have control over 345,000 square kilometres, all of that is covered by this ban. The remaining 3000 square kilometres are covered by Queensland law, and they will act on those 3,000. We’ll act on the 99%, they’ll act on the 1%.
This was always a myth perpetuated by some of the hard-left groups; we were already going to deal with 99%, the Queensland Government is dealing with the 1%, and that’s the way the Constitution works. And to pretend otherwise I think has been something put around by some who want to deny the fact that the Commonwealth is doing what nobody else has done in a hundred years. And that’s a very significant step forward.
JOURNALIST:
Is it true that most dredge dumping in the past has happened just outside the boundary though, but still close enough to drift onto the Reef and do some damage?
GREG HUNT:
No. I think, again, this is one of the myths. What’s actually referred to here is the proposal put forward by the previous Queensland Labor Government in relation to Gladstone, and in Gladstone the large amount of disposal was actually in a bunded area in the western- in what’s known as the western bunded area. And so that was outside of the Marine Park but within the World Heritage area, but it was in a bunded area.
Now, we actually launched an inquiry into the Curtis Island and Gladstone area on our watch, but the Gladstone port area will be covered by the Queensland Government. So I think it’s, again, important to separate myths from reality, but what’s occurring here is precisely what had been raised. It’s very significant that the World Heritage Committee asked Australia to consider here, they set a standard, will you consider the Abbot Point proposal going on land? We considered it.
I’ve worked quietly behind the scenes to see that it went on land; it’s now going on land. We’ve taken five port disposal proposals and ended all of those for Marine Park disposal, and today we’ve gone to the highest level, so, really- of banning in perpetuity disposal in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. So the World Heritage Committee asked to us do level one, we’ve gone to level four.
JOURNALIST:
How far off are you from releasing the Reef 2050 Plan?
GREG HUNT:
That will be within the next two weeks. We’re just finalising some of the elements associated with the announcement with the Queensland Government. But it has been a very cooperative process, we worked well with the previous Government and, to their credit, we have worked well with the current Government. I know that Steven Miles and I have spoken on a number of occasions, we paused the process and invited them to make all of the contributions which they would want to the document, to include all of their policy elements.
We accepted and embraced all of the amendments from the new Queensland Government, indeed I asked if one could be strengthened, and together that’s produced a document which so far has, in its advanced draft form, has had a very, very positive response – not just from the World Heritage Committee and the IUCN, but from countries around the world who are part of the World Heritage Committee.
JOURNALIST:
How confident are you that that document will win over the World Heritage Committee and ensure that the Reef is not put on the endangered list?
GREG HUNT:
Well I am confident because I think it is not just a radical change in policy, it backed up by physical action – the crown-of-thorns work where we’ve doubled activity, the reductions in sediment, nitrogen, and pesticides, the activity in terms of the tripling of penalties for the harming of dugongs and turtles, the action in terms of the $2 billion total investment proposal over the next 10 years between Queensland and the Commonwealth.
So these are very, very significant changes, as well as this: it’s important to remember if the World Heritage Convention were being established today and there were no properties on it, there is no doubt that the first property that you might well add to a brand new World Heritage Convention would be the Great Barrier Reef. It is the world’s Great Barrier Reef, but it can be better.
The defining principle of the long-term plan is that we improve the quality and health of the Reef from where it is now each successive decade between now and 2050. And this is not just a commitment, it’s a deep personal passion, that we each have a certain amount of time on our watch, and the changes we’ve made in the last year are ending a hundred years of practice, and it’s important, and significant, and real. And it has already made a difference but it will make a bigger difference as we go forward.
JOURNALIST:
Why has it taken so long? Why has there been a hundred years of this, and why has it taken the Government so long to make the decision to actually stop this?
GREG HUNT:
Well, actually, we came in after a hundred years of practice – that is correct. Within a year, we had made the announcement. So, just on a year after coming in we made the announcement at the World Parks Congress. I even foreshadowed it significantly earlier. And so after 100 years, to do it within one year is a pretty good outcome.
There were a lot of entrenched positions, there were points of resistance, and we had to work and fight against those. But when I’m on the rocking chair in 40 years’ time, I am hopeful that I’ll look back at this and think that in the course of my professional life there may be nothing that was more important. So it’s a pretty satisfying moment, and I think it’s powerful for Australia, and it’s a powerful message to the rest of the world. I know that other countries are astonished by what Australia has managed over the last year.
Alright? Thank you very much.
JOURNALIST:
On the Renewable Energy Target.
GREG HUNT:
Oh sure.
JOURNALIST:
Do you fear that jobs could go if a deal is not struck this month?
GREG HUNT:
Well I am actually passionately committed to resolving the Renewable Energy Target. We inherited, under Labor’s law, a mandatory review which had to be done, and we have been seeking an agreement with the ALP for the best part of a year. I know now that the renewables industry, manufacturing, and the unions are all putting pressure on Bill Shorten to come to the table. I think we can reach an agreement. I would like to see it in the next two weeks, but I won’t put a barrier or a time frame.
But we can double the amount of installed renewable energy every the next five years, which has been put in place in the last fifteen. That’s a great agreement. But it’s necessary to do it in terms of where we’re at, because at present we all know, on the back of what the Climate Change Authority – let alone anybody else – has found that the law as it is will not see the target met, which would then see a $93 per tonne equivalent carbon tax penalty imposed on families. Almost four times what was in place under the carbon tax.
So the right outcome here is a near-doubling of renewable energy but without the impact of a $93 per tonne carbon tax equivalent penalty on families and small businesses. I think we can get the agreement.
JOURNALIST:
Inaudible.
GREG HUNT:
Sorry I’ll finish here and then ..
JOURNALIST:
Which industries other than aluminium do you plan to give an exemption to?
GREG HUNT:
We have already talked publicly about exemptions for the trade exposed sector. And so the trade exposed sector involves a variety of metals and manufacturing industries, but aluminium represents the bulk of that. The ALP has already agreed to the principle of that exemption in terms of aluminium.
Last time when the Renewable Energy Target was being established they provided a partial exemption across all of the trade exposed sector because Penny Wong at the time said that that would be the only fair, reasonable and consistent policy action to take.
JOURNALIST:
Labor’s indicated it’s prepared to compromise from the 41,000 gigawatt hours that it originally wanted. Are you prepared to meet them halfway on that? Or what, sort of, deal would you be prepared to strike with them?
GREG HUNT:
We have already travelled two-thirds of the way so we would hope that they will come the additional part. I won’t put a specific figure on it today. I will say this – that we need to have something which can actually be constructed, because if you set a figure which can’t be constructed, what happens is that the penalty law kicks in and a $93 per tonne carbon tax equivalent will be slugged.
Which is the worst of all possible worlds, because the renewable energy is not constructed but families are hit with the electricity tax. And we don’t want to see an electricity tax which is four times higher, almost, than the carbon tax which was abolished only a few months ago.
JOURNALIST:
Will you be prepared to go with a higher Renewable Energy Target though, if it means giving industry certainty?
GREG HUNT:
Well I believe that industry is meeting with Bill Shorten today, urging him to come to the table. We have actually moved very significantly, we would like to see movement from the ALP. But we’re constructive and we have had constructive talks in recent weeks. There was a strike by the ALP, they refused to come to meetings for the best part of three months.
I’m pleased that they’re back at the table, but it’s industry, the unions, and the clean energy sector which have all called on the ALP to move from their fixed position. But in a good constructive sense, in the same way that we have worked with the Queensland ALP on protecting and preserving the Reef, I think we can work with the Federal ALP if they remain flexible.
We are certainly flexible on ensuring that we can have a near doubling of renewable energy over the next five years. Alright, last question.
JOURNALIST:
Sorry, does the Government believe there needs to an investigation into the complex ownership of Adani? There’s been a number of reports about how complex the ownership is.
GREG HUNT:
Sure. Those are matters for the Queensland Government under Queensland law. I know that the new Queensland Government has indicated that they will be putting forward a proposal. There are certain matters which you can consider under Federal law and certain matters which would be in breach of the Federal law.
So we are covering all matters which are covered by the Federal law. In terms of the specific things you raise, they’re matters for the Queensland Government under Queensland law.
JOURNALIST:
Will you discuss that with Steven Miles, have you- has that- did that conversation come up in your conversations (inaudible)?
GREG HUNT:
Look, what we’ve agreed on is that they will deal with all matters that are relevant to Queensland law, and we’ll deal with all matters relevant to Commonwealth law.
JOURNALIST:
Just on Ban Ki-moon’s comments over the weekend in light of what’s happened in Vanuatu.
GREG HUNT:
Yes.
JOURNALIST:
Do you agree that climate change is create- he said that climate change is putting developing countries at risk, because events like what we’ve seen there are becoming the new norm?
GREG HUNT:
Look I think it’s real, and significant, and important. The best advice from the Bureau of Meteorology is not to be drawn into the question of any single event, but these are about long-term trends. And this is the reason why Australia met our targets for the first round of Kyoto; we’ll be releasing figures in the coming weeks about our projections for the second round of Kyoto from 2012 to 2020.
I can say this, we’re going to be well ahead of our trajectories and predictions in terms of meeting our targets than had previously been the case. In short, we will meet or beat or targets, which means that we’ll be one of the few countries in the world to have done that for the first and second Kyoto rounds, and then we’ll be part of a third round, the post-2020 round.
We want a good global agreement. We’ve just passed a $2.5 billion climate law for Australia. And so of all the countries in the world, we’re one of the few that will have met and beaten our first and second round Kyoto commitments.
Alright. Thank you very much.
(ENDS)