Senator GIBSON —My question is to the Minister for the Environment. Minister, last year the government fulfilled its election commitment to nominate Macquarie Island and the Heard and McDonald Islands group for world heritage listing. Will you indicate the results of those nominations?

Senator HILL —This is a very good story. This is after some years of work by our government and the previous government to try to get Macquarie Island and the Heard and McDonald Islands group recognised as having world heritage values. I am pleased that late last night we received the word that they were to be included on the World Heritage List. Heard and McDonald Islands, as honourable senators would know, are about 4,000 kilometres south-west of Perth. They have been listed for both their biological and geological values. Their isolation and inhospitable conditions have meant that no long-term human activity or human-introduced plants or animals are found on the islands and they are, therefore, almost unique in that regard. The islands also provide a haven for millions of birds and marine animals. In fact, Heard Island is the only place in the world where all six species of Antarctic seals have been recorded.

The Heard and McDonald Islands have also been listed because of their geological values as they contain unique physical processes, particularly relating to island formation. They are the only sub-Antarctic islands where volcanic activity is currently taking place. Indeed, as all quiz masters know, Big Ben on Heard Island is the highest mountain of Australia.

Macquarie Island has been nominated because of its unique geological values. It is the only known place where the solid outer shell of the oceanic crust of the planet is exposed above sea level. It is also the site of continuing fault line activity and is therefore an example of ongoing geological processes.

The Macquarie Island nomination was lodged with the full cooperation and support of the Tasmanian government. I have to say how pleasing it is to see that Australian governments, federal and state, are now working cooperatively in these matters; a further signal of a different approach from the Commonwealth government, I might say. I congratulate the Tasmanian government in that regard. We are also working cooperatively with Western Australia in the hope of getting the Bungle Bungles listed, and cooperatively with the New South Wales government in the hope of getting the Blue Mountains listed eventually—very different from the old trench warfare days of the Labor Party.

In getting these assets listed in a cooperative way, we are then better placed to put in management programs that can be implemented cooperatively. We are also better placed to engage the whole community in protecting and conserving these unique values. So this is a good news story. I acknowledge the assistance of all others who worked to get this listing, in particular, Professor Rick Varne from the University of Tasmania. We had other assistance from groups as diverse as the Wilderness Society. We appreciate it. Finally, I acknowledge the work of my officials, who did a great job. There were some difficulties, as those who are interested know, but success was achieved in the end. This is therefore good news for Australia and another thing of which we can be very proud as a government.