Mr LINDSAY (5:28 PM) —I rise to speak on the Environment and Heritage Legislation Amendment Bill 2000. This bill amends the Environment Protection (Sea Dumping) Act 1981 and the Sea Installations Act 1987. I have a particular interest in the ramifications of the changes to these acts because my electorate of Herbert is in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, as are the cities of Townsville and Thuringowa.

Mr Slipper —And are well represented by the member for Herbert.

Mr LINDSAY —Thank you, Parliamentary Secretary. In speaking to this bill, I would like to explore how the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is managed, and how that management will interact with the proposed new act. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is one of the world's largest marine protected areas, encompassing a complex array of diverse ecosystems as well as social, economic and cultural activities. The social, economic and cultural activities are covered in the two acts that we are discussing this afternoon. I note that another parliamentary secretary, the member for Leichhardt, has joined us. He certainly has a very great interest in the operations of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

The marine park covers approximately 350,000 square kilometres, stretching more than 2,000 miles along the Queensland coast. Because of its large size, diversity and uniqueness, the marine park is an internationally significant resource of world recognised ecological and conservation values. I am pleased to support this particular bill this afternoon because it enhances and reinforces the protection available to this world-class, world heritage listed area. Together with 2,957 square kilometres of adjacent Queensland state marine park and the 918 islands within its boundaries, it was inscribed on the world heritage list in 1981.The marine park is not a national park, but was established as a multiple use park. I note—and this is particularly relevant to the bill that we are discussing this afternoon—that the park is closed to petroleum exploration and development and spearfishing with scuba equipment, but supports a range of commercial activities which contribute significantly to local, regional and national economies. The most significant, of course, is tourism, which generates an estimated $1 billion annually in revenue and employs thousands of people. There are many people employed all along the Queensland coast.

It is very interesting to see what we find in the marine park. I will just provide some facts for the interest of the parliament and those who might be listening to this broadcast this afternoon. There is an absolutely amazing diversity which needs to be protected, and the Sea Installations Act and the sea dumping act go a long way towards enhancing that protection. The marine park has six of the world's seven species of marine turtle; the largest green turtle breeding area in the world; one of the world's most important dugong populations; a breeding area for humpback and other whale species; about 2,900 coral reefs built from 359 different species of hard coral; over one-third of the world's soft coral and sea pen species; over 3,000 square kilometres of seagrass meadows; 2,000 square kilometres of mangroves, including 54 per cent of the world's total mangrove diversity; more than 1,500 species of fish—indeed, I might just divert and observe that when you go fishing in the marine park each fish you catch is usually different; 1,500 species of sponges, equalling 30 per cent of Australia's diversity; 800 species of echinoderms; over 5,000 species of molluscs; 2,200 species of native plants; and spectacular landscapes—for example, the Hinchinbrook Channel, Whitsunday Islands and Magnetic Islands. I understand there are probably one or two islands off Cairns as well. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park headquarters is located in Townsville in my electorate of Herbert. It is a magnificent organisation and does tremendous work in protecting the marine park and also in terms of its attention to detail in many of the issues that come up in protecting this magnificent resource. I am very pleased to say that the staff at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park are thoroughly professional, and I think Australia can be proud of their input.

The Sea Installations Act ensures the safe operation of installations that are within the economic exclusion zone and it looks after the safety of people operating within that zone and also the operations of ships and aircraft in the particular area. It also ensures that such installations are operated in a manner that is consistent with the protection of the environment. That is a key point in the marine park and adjacent to the marine park, which is where this particular act is going to have most effect. There is a lot of tourism, recreation, and environmentally related activity, a lot of carrying on of businesses and certainly a lot of fishing operations, tourism businesses, et cetera. They have installations that are required and this act covers those sorts of things. The act applies in respect of sea installations installed in an adjacent area of a state or affected territory. While that does not affect the marine park, it certainly affects areas where there are cross-border boundary issues. The clarification of that is very helpful and is something that is long overdue.

I have a very significant interest in the sea dumping act. This particular act reinforces the protection of the existing Great Barrier Reef in no uncertain terms, and that is certainly very popular in my electorate in Townsville and Thuringowa. It extends the area currently protected to the entire economic exclusion zone, and that particular zone is very important to Australia. I might observe at this point that, as the member for Dunkley quite rightly observed earlier in this debate, we are the only country in the world that has an oceans policy. The sea dumping act, I am pleased to say, is part of the strengthening and underpinning of that and, of course, it strengthens and underpins the provisions of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority Act. It covers commercial operations, and one that I am particularly interested in and one where we have seen some problems in the past is in relation to oil dumping at sea. That is a particularly sensitive matter. If a ship dumps oil adjacent to the marine park it can cause enormous damage in this world heritage listed area.

I would also like to indicate an issue that is, and has been in the past, very sensitive in my electorate—the operation of foreign and Australian defence vessels within Australia's economic exclusion zone. From time to time the ADF holds very important and significant exercises principally in the Shoalwater Bay training area off Rockhampton, but the exercises can be right along the Queensland coast. They involve ships of our Navy and also ships of foreign navies. Up until now Defence was not required to comply with the current act. That caused some significant concern over things like the dumping of grey water or black water from the ships within Australia's economic exclusion zone. Fortunately, our ADF is a very good corporate citizen and has voluntarily complied with what everybody would expect it to comply with, but with the new sea dumping act it must now comply absolutely. The act will cover Australian ships at sea and also foreign ships of other navies. I think we can now say clearly to our communities in Queensland that defence related activities within the economic exclusion zone will operate as we would expect them to and we will not dump material that should not be dumped.

I also note that there are tougher provisions in the sea dumping act. I welcome them. They will be enforced or applied when Australia detects any breach of the particular matters covered by this act. I am pleased to see that the enforcement will be widened. As I understand it, Environment Australia has a very small number of inspectors, if not only one. There will now be other government agencies that will be able to take part in the enforcement of this particular act. They include people from the Customs Service, the Federal Police and Coastwatch. We have seen in this week's budget a significant amount of extra money being given to Coastwatch and Customs to look at our border protection. Of course, when these groups are out there doing their sea patrols, they will be watching for breaches of this act; they will all be empowered to do that. We will have a lot more eyes and ears out there watching and hearing in order to protect our economic exclusion zone and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. That is a very good result of the bill that is before this parliament. Under the sea dumping act—and I think this has been pointed out previously but it is worth while underlining it—Australia fulfils its obligations as one of the 77 contracting parties to the London convention. We are abiding by our obligations internationally and the government is certainly very pleased to be able to do that.

On a note of caution, I would raise a matter in relation to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park that concerns me and my electorate in Townsville and Thuringowa. It is not covered by this particular act and I put it on the record today as a matter of concern. It is again a defence related activity: the use of high explosives in this area. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has written to the Department of Defence requesting that it phase out the use of high explosives in defence practice areas—and I stress within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park area. That is not an area covered by your electorate, Madam Deputy Speaker Gash, by the Jervis Bay sea range; it is within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. The matter, as I understand it, is being negotiated at a senior interdepartmental level, and it will be interesting to see what the outcome is.

I would also add for the parliament's information that, while conservation of the marine park is the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority's primary role, statutory zoning plans do allow defence activities to occur within designated defence areas. We would know them as training areas. I certainly have one within about 12 to 15 kilometres of the city of Townsville in Halifax Bay within the marine park: the Rattlesnake Island-Cordelia Rock bombing area, which the RAAF uses. There have been some community concerns about that. To the RAAF's credit, it has been negotiating with the marine park authority to try to resolve community concerns.

I conclude by indicating to the parliament that I believe the passage of the Environment and Heritage Legislation Amendment Bill 2000 will reaffirm Australia's commitment to the protection of the marine environment by implementing the 1996 protocol to the London convention. I therefore strongly support the bill before the parliament this afternoon.