Senator LIGHTFOOT (4:30 PM) —The two previous speakers, Senator Bartlett and Senator Carr, raised some ambiguity about the government's position with respect to the Great Barrier Reef. Let me make it absolutely clear. There will be—unambiguously—no drilling on the Great Barrier Reef. There will be no mining on the Great Barrier Reef. There are no `ifs' or `buts'—there will be no drilling or mining on the Great Barrier Reef. This private member's bill, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (Boundary Extension) Amendment Bill 2002, seeks to widen, by four or five times, the boundaries of what is already one of the world's greatest national parks—and a World Heritage listed national park, at that. At the moment, the national park, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, runs from Fraser Island, just north/north-east of Brisbane, up to and beyond the tip of the Cape York Peninsula—over 2,000 miles in length. It has within those boundaries 2,900 reefs and nearly 1,000 islands and its area is 348,000 square kilometres.

The private member's bill proposes that the boundary should be taken out to our exclusive economic zone, 200 miles, that it should be enlarged to over 1.3 million square kilometres and that within those boundaries there should be no mining or exploration of any kind whatsoever. If that were to happen, and this chamber were to give its imprimatur to the private member's bill, the next items on the list would be Australia's part of the Timor Sea, the Gulf of Carpentaria, Spencer's Gulf, other parts of the Great Australian Bight that are not already in the World Heritage List or otherwise in marine parks, and areas off the coast of Western Australia. You will recall, Madam Acting Deputy President, that Western Australia is the largest producer of petroleum and petroleum products in the nation today. You would also recall that Australia is only about 75 per cent self-sufficient with respect to those products.

Senator Bartlett is one of those chaps who wants to be able to dictate to people what they should do, but that is not going to stop him from wearing his plastic sandals or his polyester suits or shirts or the other products that he uses every day that come from petroleum. It is not going to stop him driving his motor vehicle, that belches out particulates of a nasty nature. It is not going to stop him getting employment, because he was elected last year to serve another six years after 30 June, from 1 July. So he is looking pretty comfortable. But there is not much comfort for other people, with children coming on, or for university students who want employment if this ridiculous suggestion by Senator Bartlett, manifested in his private member's bill, should ever come into force.

We heard Senator Carr asking a moment ago: why should the government wait for an environmental impact assessment? The government is obliged by law to wait for it. The government cannot stop the legal process, and the legal process is that if someone wishes to conduct exploration surveys over areas other than the World Heritage listed areas they are quite entitled to do so and then report to the minister. Then the minister can assess those surveys, agree with the application, make some change or recommendation or otherwise reject the application. I also heard Senator Carr talking about—no doubt people will read this in the Hansard—the multibillion dollar shale oil development in southern Queensland that could, at its peak, make Australia self-sufficient in oil products, saving the need to import the billions of dollars worth of oil that come into Australia each year.

What I find bizarre about this is that the reef is protected. Senator Ludwig will probably take me up on an issue later, so let me declare my position. I am, and have been, a longstanding member of the Geological Society of Australia.

Senator Boswell —And proud of it.

Senator LIGHTFOOT —Indeed; exceedingly proud of it, Senator Boswell. At the same time, and for the same period of time, I have been a member of the Australian Mining and Petroleum Law Association. I am also a past member of the Association of Mining Exploration Companies, and a few other companies associated with those industries that produce the wealth of Australia. We are not saying that there should be mining or other disturbance of the Great Barrier Reef as it is already delineated—348,000 kilometres, which is an enormous area. People would agree that it is extraordinarily generous. But one thing will follow after another and, if wacko suggestions like this private member's bill come into force, entry to the whole continental shelf of Australia will be prohibited to those who wish to conduct exploration so that we can sustain ourselves, not just with the excellent standard of living which has been raised by this government during the past eight years or so but in the future. And it is the future that worries me. If you say that that boundary can extend to the exclusive economic zone, as the bill indicates, that represents a staggering amount of land—1.325 million square kilometres, which is a phenomenal area of land.

But what is going to replace the wealth of Australia if extraordinary and silly suggestions like this are able to be brought into law and thus inhibit such exploration? Having declared my position, my view is this: the position of these areas on the World Heritage List is sacrosanct; the government has declared that. But areas outside those should not be set aside and prohibited from exploration of any kind; it is a matter of how you do it. The bill does not take certain matters into consideration, if drilling is banned in these areas.

We have a fringing reef—not a barrier reef—of world standard in Western Australia. It is one of the world's best kept secrets. It is called Ningaloo Reef. It is a most magnificent natural structure. I have dived on it and I have travelled the length and, in most instances, the breadth of it, too. It is a wonderful asset to the tourist industry in Western Australia.

In areas that are not World Heritage listed, we should be asking ourselves: how do we extract oil from those areas in a sustainable fashion and in a fashion that does not do any harm to those areas? It can be done. It is done in all parts of the world. It is done in the block that is encompassed by the exclusive economic zone of the newly independent East Timor. It is done in the North Sea. It is done in the Bay of Mexico. It is done in the Irish Sea. It is done in other areas that are far more sensitive than those areas that are outside the World Heritage listed areas mentioned in this bill.

This bill is a clear indication of the Democrats' inability to understand modern, third millennium economics. This bill, if it were passed, would clearly entail legalised economic vandalism. These types of wacko suggestions do not help to secure overseas investment for Australia. In another wacko suggestion from the same senator last night, he indicated that animals should have a vote. That will give you an indication, Madam Acting Deputy President, of what this is about.

Senator Boswell —When did he say that?

Senator LIGHTFOOT —He said it while I was in the chair, Senator Boswell. I think he even mentioned that battery hens should have a vote. I refer you to the Hansard of last night, and the debate which occurred between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. This bill represents another of those wacko suggestions. It is an appalling piece of economic vandalism. If I understood what Senator Carr was saying, the bill also places in jeopardy the multibillion dollar oil shale development in Queensland—and the state is lucky to have world-class developments of that nature.

The following activities take place inside the reef now: swimming—and so it should—snorkelling, scuba diving, recreational fishing, commercial fishing, sail boating, motor boating and motorised water sports. Research takes place every day of the year along the length of that beautiful reef. There are floating hotels, commercial shipping et cetera.

Let me talk briefly about commercial shipping and one of the great dangers for the reef in Western Australia. Oil exploration within that reef has been banned—and I agree with that; I am something of a right-wing greenie, if I can perhaps promote that rather contradictory statement—but it does not say anything about, and cannot stop, the travel of millions of tonnes of shipping just outside the boundaries of the Ningaloo Reef Marine Park. It cannot prevent the tankers that travel there from carrying hundreds of thousands of tonnes of oil past the reef.

World Heritage marine parks are not in danger from exploration, survey or the extraction of oil or gas. They are in greater danger from the advent of oil tankers passing over them, contiguous to them or through them. The more that we ban oil and gas exploration in Australia, the more that we have to import; and the more that we have to import, of course, the greater the danger that one of those tankers will run aground on a reef, and that will cause disaster. There has not been a serious spill from an offshore oil platform in the developed world in memory. There have been some spills, but they were not serious spills. They inflicted nowhere near the damage that has been inflicted by tankers that empty their ballast tanks, or tankers that wash their ballast tanks, out in our waters.

This is a very disappointing message for us to send to overseas investors and companies on which we rely for our standard of living, for the exploration and the expertise they bring to extract and exploit oil and gas deposits. As I said, it is okay for Senator Bartlett. He gets his $100,000-odd a year. He gets his car and his driver. He is still going to buy his plastic sandals and his polyester suits. It is okay for him; he can afford to do it. But what about the rest of those Australians that are not in Senator Bartlett's position, that cannot bring down economically irresponsible bills of this nature? Even if this bill is not enacted—and I pray to God that it is not—it still sends a bad message to overseas companies that want to invest, and indeed have over many decades and generations invested, in Australia. I am very disappointed about this. I cannot tell you the damage that this will do if it is enacted.

As a result of being a member of a committee in the Western Australian parliament that inquired into the Ningaloo Marine Park and the reef that is associated with that, I visited several countries of the world to inspect their reefs. There is some damage being done, particularly in Third World countries but not limited to Third World countries at all. Mauritius, for instance, has an enormous phosphate run-off from the island and probably two-thirds of their coral is damaged or has died. I found that very disturbing. We have offered some advice to Mauritius. I have also inspected reefs off the east coast of South Africa. One of the great wonders of the world is not in a developed country but in an undeveloped country—Egypt. I travelled along the coast, diving off the reefs from Sharm el-Sheikh further north along the Sinai Peninsula, in the mid-nineties. It is a wondrous thing to behold because the land surface of that particular area is something like a moonscape. I have never been to the moon, but I have certainly seen photographs of it. It is something like a moonscape, but once you—

Senator Crossin —You act like you are on the moon.

Senator LIGHTFOOT —Yes, you have been to the moon, I understand. Is that what you said, Senator Crossin? You are very lucky. Madam Acting Deputy President, once you get underwater it is like a fairyland. It is so beautiful it is indescribable. That is the thing that we want to preserve; but denying economic progress, denying 6.5 billion people in this world the right to work and the right to a standard of living, with wacko suggestions like this—that we should enact legislation to extend the boundaries of this marine park out to our exclusive economic zone into the Coral Sea—is just touched with a bit of madness. It goes beyond being irresponsible; it is unbalanced, if I can put it that way.

Could I impress upon the Senate again before I sit down that the danger is not in modern exploration; the danger is in making Australia depend on oil imports. If we depend on imports, there is more shipping. Sure as God made little apples, if we are going to have more shipping come past these reefs, there is the probability that there will be more disasters with tankers and ships. That is the problem. If they have to then circle around this area in our exclusive economic zone, that is going to add to the costs of the ordinary Australian. Once again, it is not so bad for Senator McLucas and Senator Bartlett. They are pretty comfortable here; they are doing pretty well here. What about the people who do not get their $110,000 a year and their car and their driver? What about those people who have to pay extra if this stupid legislation is given royal assent? What about the people who do not enjoy those things that Senator Bartlett and Senator McLucas do? I ask you to think about those people, and I ask members of the Senate to think about those people. Do not give this bill a second reading. It is a stupid bill. It sends the wrong message overseas. We do not want wacko legislation like this being given the time of day here.