Doorstop interview, Cairns, with Minister for the Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek

NITA GREEN: Well, thank you, everyone, for being here. And can I say a big thank you to Minister Plibersek for being here in Cairns, which is also known as the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. It’s obviously my honour to be the Special Envoy for the Great Barrier Reef. It’s a global icon that brings people from around the globe to places like this place in Cairns. When I became the Special Envoy for the Great Barrier Reef I was conscious of the threats that the reef faces and the ongoing challenges that we need to meet as a government to make sure that we’re managing those threats.

I also said that I would spend as much time in the water as I do in the catchments. And I’ve had the real honour of going all the way down the Queensland coast from the Russell River and the Mulgrave River here, working with farmers and working with scientists from JCU to see the work that they’re doing in our catchments, all the way down to the Mary River and the Mary River catchment and the work that is being done to fix erosion.

Through that process I’ve had the opportunity to see just how important the work is that improves water quality of the Great Barrier Reef. We know that water quality is incredibly important, and we know that this is one of the ways that we can make the reef more resilient to the changes that it’s facing.

So today we’ve got a really important announcement about water quality and about improving water quality and the really big investment that our government is making in the groups and in the land owners that are doing this work and making sure that we accelerate the improvements in water quality that we need to make for the Great Barrier Reef.

I’ll let the minister explain the announcement to you, but suffice to say I’m very proud and I’m really, really honoured that we’re making this announcement right here in Cairns.

I just want to say one other thing: I’m standing here with some really important people as well – we’ve got Fiona from the Reef Authority and David Wachenfeld from AIMS, and they’re going to talk to you a little bit about the summer ahead. We know that this is going to be a challenging summer, and that’s why we’re putting so much work into the resilience of the reef and how we can make sure that it’s strong and it’s being monitored all the way through the summer months.

For my part, this week I will travel to Townsville and I’ll participate in the pre-summer workshop, an annual event that is very important this year that brings together traditional owners, brings together tourism operators but, of course, scientists and the people that manage the reef. It’s something that I really wanted to be at in person so I could hear from the experts firsthand about what conditions the reef is facing this summer and how we can manage and protect it. And I know that they’re keen to talk to you a little bit about the summer ahead and the work that our government is doing to protect the Great Barrier Reef.

So I’ll hand over to David. Thank you.

DAVID WACHENFELD, AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF MARINE SCIENCE: Thank you, Senator. Good afternoon, everybody. With our global ocean having reached its hottest ever recorded temperature in recent months and also events in the northern hemisphere over the northern hemisphere summer where that summer has delivered the greatest heat stress ever recorded – and those records were broken by quite a large margin – we’ve seen the greatest heat stress ever in the tropical western Atlantic and eastern Pacific. So it really comes as no surprise that climate change is the greatest threat to the coral reefs of the world but also to the communities and the industries that depend upon those coral reefs for economy, for food and for coastline protection.

So as we enter our southern hemisphere summer we are now in El Nino conditions, and that brings with it weather conditions that elevate the risk of marine heat waves this summer throughout the Australian tropical marine environment right from the east coast all the way across the north and down the west coast. And that, of course, is a particular concern for our coral reefs, including the iconic and globally significant Great Barrier Reef.

Now, it’s important to understand that we cannot stop a marine heat wave, but a marine heat wave represents an opportunity to conduct strategic marine science that allows us to improve and better understand the techniques that we can use to protect our tropical marine ecosystems into the future as the planet warms and impacts from climate change grow. And, of course, that’s critical because we need to protect the resilience of these marine ecosystems.

So while it’s absolutely urgent and critical that we achieve global reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, it is also critical that we do everything we possibly can to reduce local pressures to the reef to give the reef the best resilience it can have and the best fighting chance it can have in relation to impacts from climate change.

A key pressure that we can reduce locally is degraded water quality from pollutants and sediment running off the land. So a key initiative that we can implement to protect the reef and improve its resilience is to reduce pollutants coming off the land, including fine sediment, and that will give the reef a strong fighting chance against climate change and improve its resilience.

This is important for many of our inshore habitats, particularly seagrass meadows and coral reefs. And, of course, those inshore habitats are both critical for iconic species such as dugong, turtles and dolphins, but those habitats are also critical for the lifestyles and livelihoods of coastal communities up and down the length of the Great Barrier Reef.

So together with our partners at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. We, the Australian Institute of Marine Science will continue to conduct the monitoring on our tropical marine ecosystems. It is essential for us to understand impacts upon them, how to reduce those impacts and improve the health of those ecosystems and give, in particular, our coral reef systems the best resilience possible in the face of climate change. And I think now I’ll pass over to Fiona from the Reef Authority.

FIONA MERIDA, GREAT BARRIER REEF MARINE PARK AUTHORITY: Thank you. So the Reef Authority plays a vital role within reporting on the health of the reef, especially during summer when the risks of extreme weather such as coral bleaching and cyclones is much higher. As David mentioned, global sea surface temperatures have been the warmest on record for each respective month since April. And based on this, the Reef Authority has brought forward our established planning procedures to prepare for the coming summer. These include maintaining our situational awareness of reef health using the best available data and information. This is informed by not only scientific modelling and drawing on observations from a huge network of partners out on the Great Barrier Reef, and this includes not only in water observations but also aerial surveys and sightings that are submitted by members of the public and people that are out on the water, marine park users, use the Eye on the Reef app.

And we are also coordinating our extensive network of partners from scientists, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and traditional owners, AIMS and the Bureau of Meteorology and the tourism industry to understand reef health even better. And this will be occurring during our pre-summer workshop that Senator Green will be attending also.

And we will, of course, implement further management responses if and when required. The Great Barrier Reef truly is the best managed and the best monitored reef in the world, and so we’re going to utilise all of the information sources to answer questions as the reef is changing to inform how we can intervene and how we can take actions to protect the reef for the communities and for the industries that are relying on it.

Of course, reducing threats to the reef is critical in a changing climate, and this includes our efforts with crown-of-thorns starfish control and also efforts in water quality improvements. Another such partnership that we’ve been working on is with the tourism industry to match the amazing observational data and information that they can take at a site scale and marry that with intensive scientific data and information. And we are now really utilising these sites to help inform and answer questions for the scientific community, for management partners and for industry relying on the Great Barrier Reef.

The Reef Authority supports all responsible actions that reduce threats to the marine park, and improving water quality flowing from the catchments adjacent to the reef can help in building the reef’s resilience and improving ecosystem health. Thank you.

TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Well, thanks, so much to Nita Green, to David, to Fiona for those comments. The Albanese Government is absolutely committed to protecting this beautiful, natural asset for Australia. We know that the Great Barrier Reef [inaudible] as a national wonder, we know that it also supports about 64,000 jobs and brings in about $6.4 billion every year in tourism and other income. So the Reef is so important for the environment. It’s also important for the economy in Queensland.

As a government we’re absolutely committed to acting on climate change. That’s why we have legislated the pathway to net zero emissions. That’s why we’re working to get to 82 per cent renewable energy. That’s why we’ve invested in green hydrogen and lowering vehicle emissions and helping families and businesses transition from gas to electricity. That’s why we’re doing a whole range of things domestically on climate change.

But, of course, we also have the responsibility to deal some of the more immediate threats that David was talking about – including things like water quality on the Reef. We know that water quality can make a critical difference to the health of the Reef. So at times when we’ve got a stressed reef because of warmer water temperatures, actually having better quality water coming in from the catchments is absolutely vital.

I’m really delighted today to announce an additional $50 million bringing the Federal Government’s investment to improving the water quality to $200 million. And this money can start to flow as early as March next year. We’re working with natural resource management organisations, with local councils, with environmental organisations, with traditional owners to make sure that we have the right projects to improve water quality.

We know that poor quality water flowing on to the reef can be really bad for the seagrass meadows, coating them, effectively causing them to die. We know that poor water quality can have a really bad effect on coral health, but these are critical environments for a number of endangered sea animals as well. If we don’t have healthy seagrass meadows we won’t have dugongs. So the $200 million investment from the Government enables us to go catchment by catchment to work out how we improve the quality from that river or that stream going on to the Great Barrier Reef.

In many cases it will mean dealing with weeds, it will mean replanting native vegetation. It will mean restrictions on how stock access the water. All of these are efforts to stabilise the banks of our rivers, our streams and our gullies to prevent the erosion that takes that soil into the river and on to the reef. By restoring the river banks, the gully banks, the streams by replanting sedges and wetlands, by looking after our seagrass meadows, we don’t just improve water quality; we also provide really valuable habitat for the sea creatures but also the birds and fish that are living in those creeks and gullies. We also, of course, provide a valuable carbon sequestration opportunity. So we’re preparing the on land environment, we’re protecting the ocean environment, providing habitat on land and in the water. And we’re also helping deal with the dangers of climate change by providing carbon sequestration. Are the any questions?

JOURNALIST: One of the catchments is up on the tablelands, the Chalumbin wind farm proposed by Arc Energy, and that is with your department for assessment. Have you made a decision? If not, when will you make a decision?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, I think each time I’ve been asked here in Cairns about proposals that are before me, I’ve had to explain that as the Environment I can’t give a running commentary on decisions that are before me. As the decision maker it’s very important that I remain objective. That’s what I’m doing. I’ll make a decision and as soon as the decision is made you’ll see it up on the department’s website.

JOURNALIST: Will it be this year, next year?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: As soon as I’ve made the decision you’ll see it up on the department’s website.

JOURNALIST: What compelling evidence have you got –

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Can I actually say something a little bit more broadly, though – getting to 82 per cent renewable energy is absolutely critical for Australia to meet its international obligations, for us to have cheaper, cleaner energy in people’s homes, bringing down the cost of living for families, making it easier to run a business. We know that cheaper, cleaner energy is part of Australia’s future. We can be the clean energy super power and export green energy in the same way that we traditionally have exported fossil fuels. That’s a future that I’m really proud to be a part of.

So we are, of course, supporting renewable energy projects. In fact, this government has signed off on close to 40 renewable energy projects. I signed off one recently in Queensland that would power around 200,000 homes. In Victoria just a couple of weeks ago I signed off on the largest battery in Asia. These projects, close to 40 of them, are really critical to Australia getting to zero net emissions. They’re absolutely vital to us getting to 82 per cent renewable energy. But each project has to meet our environmental standards. Whether it is a new housing development or a road or a transmission line or a solar farm, I will apply the same rules and the same standards to assessing those projects.

JOURNALIST: Minister, the water quality announcement the other day [inaudible]?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: So this is an additional $50 million to take this package to a total of $200 million. We’ve decided as a government that this work is so important and so worthwhile that we want to up the investment that we announced earlier this year. It will go through natural resource management organisations, through local councils. We’ll make sure that we’re working with traditional owners, with environmental organisations, with community organisations. There are some great projects out there that are just waiting for funding. I’ve spoken to all sorts of land holders who talk about not just the erosion issues caused by cattle but also animals like feral pigs really contributing to erosion. We know that by replanting natural vegetation we have the benefit of preventing erosion. We also provide habitat for Australian native animals. As well as preventing erosion we can also reduce the impact of natural disasters like floods. If we have streams, rivers, gullies that are in a more natural state, we slow down the flow of water, we have a much more successful withstanding of the flooding events we’ve seen in recent years as well.

JOURNALIST: Minister, so why was this extra 50 million granted? Was the 150 not enough?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: No, we just – we know that this is worthwhile work to do. And we know that we’ve got a big task ahead. Making sure that we are reducing sediment runoff on to the Great Barrier Reef is a huge contribution we can make to the health of the reef to protecting the environments that beautiful creatures like dugongs absolutely rely on. We know that we have the added advantage of restoring habitat on land. We’ve got the carbon sequestration benefits, we’ve got the prevention of flooding. There are so many benefits to these projects that we want to make sure this government is backing as many of them on land as we can.

JOURNALIST: How successful has the $150 million been so far in terms of [indistinct] improving the water quality of the reef?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, reducing the runoff is a long-term project and this really is something that we need to do consistently over the long term. When we are, for example, revegetating, the really tiny saplings that we plant one year - it’s good to do it in the first year but it might be two or three or four or five years before you see the full benefit of that vegetation take hold. So the important thing about this commitment is that it is a longer term commitment and we expect to see benefits not just in the next few years but over the decades to come in improved water quality and also improved habitat for native animals.

JOURNALIST: Are there any extra jobs?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, of course. Wherever we’re investing in these terrific environmental projects we’re delighted to see the jobs that go with the investment.

JOURNALIST: What compelling evidence have you got that removing gill nets from the Gulf of Carpentaria will have an effect when fishers say that they have not had any interaction with vulnerable or endangered species?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, we’ve seen plenty of science about the impact of the nets. And, in fact, where we have records about what happens with gillnets we’ve seen more than a thousand swordfish caught. We’ve seen 120 dugongs. That’s just the formal records we have. These are endangered species. They are slow to reach maturity. They are not fast breeders. They don’t replace themselves very quickly. We know that every one of these creatures that is lost contributes to the risk that these threatened animals will become extinct. There’s been an enormous amount of science done by the impact of gillnet fishing. That’s why overcoming these between 2024 and 2027 will begin to reduce the impact of the gill net fisheries on our natural environment to protect species like dugongs, like swordfish, like turtles, like sharks that are threatened.

I should also mention that during the consultation of this we had more than a hundred submissions. About three-quarters of those came from fishers, and we did make some amendments to the proposal to respect some of the information that we received from the fishing industry. We are very keen wherever we can to work cooperatively. What we can’t allow is for threatened animals like dugongs and sword fish to become extinct because we don’t act when we have the information about how important it is.

JOURNALIST: On the back of that, will you, the government, ban the imports of fish caught by gill nets overseas, as fishers say will happen?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, that’s certainly something that I’ll get back to you on. I mean, we know that there are alternatives here in Australia. There will still be commercial fishing in some waters. And we know that on land aquaculture is providing more of our fish – around 60 per cent of our barramundi is coming from on land aquaculture now. We’re very committed to working with gillnet fishers about modernising what they do so they can have a less of an unintended impact on non-target species. We’re very keen to work with them, as we’ve made clear all the way through.

JOURNALIST: Minister, I have some unrelated questions to the reef. Beijing has urged Australia against making reckless and irresponsible accusations against China. What do you make of their response to the navy incident.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, we’ve been pretty clear that Australian sailors who were in the water freeing propellors from nets that had become entangled around the propellors were targeted and injured by sonar. And we’ve made very clear to the Chinese authorities that that was unprofessional and dangerous behaviour.

JOURNALIST: Why is the PM not being upfront about how he handled the matter with the President?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, he’s been completely upfront. What we don’t do as an adult government is go into the details of person-to-person conversations or messages in the way that Scott Morrison did, for example, with the French President Emmanuel Macron, throwing our relationship into chaos for several years. World leaders need the opportunity to talk to each other frankly. If they’re going to speak frankly, then they don’t expect to go out and, you know, do a blow-by-blow recount of the conversation afterwards.

JOURNALIST: What’s your message to farmers in New South Wales in the Murray Darling Basin who are saying your proposed changes will decimate [inaudible]?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, my message to the 2.3 million people who live in the Murray Darling Basin, who care about it, who want to see sustainable water use is that the Restoring our Rivers Bill is this is our one chance to deliver the Murray Darling Basin Plan. We know that without this legislation passing we won’t be able to deliver on the Murray Darling Basin Plan. That’s a disaster. It’s a disaster for our farmers, it’s a disaster for industry, it’s a disaster for tourism, it’s a disaster for the 3 million people who rely on the Murray Darling Basin for their drinking water. We have to deliver the Murray Darling Basin Plan.

And what our Restoring Our Rivers Bill does is deliver more time, more money, more options and more accountability. More time to deliver the water saving projects that reduce the need to buy water. More money to do additional projects, to deliver structural adjustment. More options, so beyond water purchase. We’re making it very clear that we want to work with communities on on-farm water saving measures, off-farm water saving measures and other ways for delivering for the environment. And more accountability.

One of the shocking things about recent years of the Murray Darling Basin Plan is it’s been on a go slow for 10 years now. We had a Liberal National government in Canberra that went out of its way to prevent the delivery of the Murray Darling Basin Plan. In fact, if you look at all of the water that has been reclaimed for the environment so far, well over 80 per cent was done when Labor was last in government. And when it comes to environmental water, I’ve delivered more in – well, in the first few months of our government than the previous government did in almost a decade. It was a deliberate sabotage of the Murray Darling Basin Plan. And the problem with that is it’s not good for farmers, it’s not good for regional communities, it’s not good for tourism, it’s not good for industry and it’s a disaster for the environment.

One thing I really want to emphasise to people who don’t follow this very closely: any water that the government buys to protect the environment is bought voluntarily. We have willing sellers who want to sell their water to the Australian Government so we can better protect the environment. Now, the same people who are out in the media saying they don’t support water buybacks, they’re happy for one farmer to sell their water to another farmer. They’re happy for water to be sold from one catchment to another river catchment. They’re even happy for water to be traded across state borders. They’re happy for the Canadian Public Service Pension Fund to buy water. They’re happy for companies associated with the Chinese government to buy water. The only people that they don’t want to be allowed to buy water is the Australian Government trying to buy water to prevent the sort of fish deaths we saw in Menindee and prevent 400-year-old red gums dying on the banks of dry rivers.

It is actually a completely illogical position to say willing sellers shouldn’t be allowed to sell their water to the Australian government for the environmental and social benefits that delivering on the Murray Darling Basin Plan provides us.

JOURNALIST: They also say that reclaiming waters isn’t environmentally sustainable. And given that the river is running quite high at the moment, is that a legitimate concern, a concern for farmers?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: No, no.

JOURNALIST: Is the government considering terrorism-style laws to lock immigration detainees back up, and has the government sought legal advice introducing these laws?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: We’ve made it very clear that our first objective is always to protect the safety of Australians. The High Court made a decision that the government argued against. That’s led to the release of people from long-term immigration detention on some of the strictest conditions that we have seen in the Australian community, including things like ankle bracelet monitoring, restriction on where people live, restrictions on the sort of work they can do. You know, if there’s further measures necessary, those will be announced by our Home Affairs Minister and our Immigration Minister.