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

MATT SMITH, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR LEICHHARDT: Good morning, my name is Matt Smith. I am the ALP’s candidate for the federal seat of Leichhardt. I'm here with Minister Tanya Plibersek and Mayor Amy Eden. It's been a pretty good 24 hours for me. My parents have come up to visit myself and my children. The Taipans won a basketball game. And then I got a phone call last night, that said Minister Plibersek was coming. And this is good, because I like Tanya. And then they told me why she was coming. So, I pulled the car over and gave a little bit of a fist pump. And I can say that today, every ratepayer in Cairns is $400 a year better off for the next 15 years. This is an incredible, incredible announcement, and a great opportunity for the city. Water security is now taken care of. This will allow our city to grow and allow our families to prosper. It was made very clear to me on day one that this was the number one priority for all Council and all our community. This was my one job, and I have delivered this one job with the assistance of the Anthony Albanese Labor Government. This proves that they're listening. The amount of ministers that have come up and sat with me, including Minister Plibersek several times, and have had to hear water, water, water. And today we're bringing water. I'll now turn it over to Minister Plibersek who will go over some more of the details, and I thank her, and I thank the Prime Minister for listening to the needs of Far North Queensland.

TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Well, thanks so much Matt Smith, who is our Labor candidate for Leichhardt. It's such a pleasure to visit you again, and it's always wonderful to see Amy, the Mayor of the Cairns Regional Council as well. It's a real delight to be back in Cairns, and it's such a pleasure to be here to make such a good announcement. We know that by 2026 the drinking water supply in Cairns was going to be under real pressure. This is a community that's been expanding. More housing, more businesses, more residents, more visitors. And that means more water is needed. With the previous state government and the current state government, we've been working closely with the Cairns Regional Council on meeting that demand for good quality drinking water for the Cairns community. Now, the Cairns Regional Council has got a $472 million project, now it was a little bit more than we had initially budgeted for. And today, I'm delighted to say that the Commonwealth Government will increase our share of the funding to a total of $195 million. The announcement today, this will add $87.5 million to the commitment we've already made to make sure that this water can be delivered without extra cost to rate payers. We're here to seal the deal. We're here to deliver the water. We're here to save up to $6,000 for every household in the Cairns Council area, off their rates. We know that the Cairns regional water supply that was first built in the 1950s and upgraded in the 1970s just doesn't have the capacity that it needs to deliver the water that will be required in the future, and unless we get that water, it means that Cairns can't continue to expand and grow as it has in recent years. So it's such a pleasure to be here with Matt today, and it's such a pleasure to be here with the Mayor, and I’ll let her speak a little bit about this.

AMY EDEN, MAYOR OF CAIRNS REGIONAL COUNCIL: Thanks Minister. I'd like to thank the Albanese Government, in particular our Cairns Senator for Queensland, Senator Nita Green, and, of course, candidate Matt Smith. It's fantastic to have the Minister Plibersek here, the Water Minister. This is a momentous day for Cairns, absolutely momentous day. It’s cost of living relief, and it means that our community, our city, can thrive and really grow into what it's destined to be. This is the power of Team Cairns. This is not an achievement that Cairns Regional Council have done alone. We've had the support of the whole community, and particularly our federal partners here and our state partners as well for that $195 million. So it's a momentous day for Cairns, and we're really excited to welcome Minister Plibersek here to Cairns for this wonderful day.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Thanks, any questions? We'll do questions about the water project first, if that's okay. Any questions about the water project? Any questions before I answer other questions? Any other questions about federal issues?

JOURNALIST: I believe we have some questions about UNESCO World Heritage.

JOURNALIST: Well, just in terms of the Cape York World Heritage listing, the Queensland Environment Minister wants the review consultation on that. Do you think that's necessary?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Look, I'm confident that the consultation was extensive. There was almost a year of consultation with communities across the Cape, and that led to a number of First Nations communities saying that they want to voluntarily sign up for World Heritage listing. I have to say, this place is beautiful. It's special, it's unique, and we want the world to love it as much as Australians love it. There are people out there trying to run an argument that this then prevents some economic development on the Cape. That's just not right. World Heritage listing for Cape York means all of the existing uses can continue. It certainly won’t affect uses like cattle grazing, and I've got more than one World Heritage listed area in my electorate. Take Lord Howe Island, for example. Lord Howe Island is internationally recognized. It's World Heritage listed for its natural beauty. That's increased tourism revenue on Lord Howe Island, it certainly hasn't stopped people going about their business on Lord Howe Island. The same can be said for those Sydney Harbour properties which are World Heritage listed. It certainly hasn't stopped development in Sydney Harbour. What it's done is protect what makes these places unique, protect what makes them globally significant. And where we've had sign up from Traditional Owners saying that they want to see World Heritage listing for their local areas I think that's a very strong sign that the consultation has been good, and there's a strong future here. A strong future that can balance protecting this unique landscape with the economic development that people want to see.

JOURNALIST: One of those people that you referred to, the acting CEO of Cape York Land Council. Are you concerned that there's a conflict of interest given and they were tasked with doing some of the consultation, but he's come out and said he's against it?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, the Cape York Land Council and the previous Queensland Government were heavily involved in driving the consultation. I was part of that consultation myself. I visited the area, I’d been in Cairns consulting people who gathered here in Cairns. I think there was very extensive consultation. But let's just be very clear about this. This has been a nomination that has proceeded with the parts of the Cape where local people have said, yes, we want this. There is no proposal here to incorporate areas where there's not local agreement, and there's certainly no proposal to interfere with the existing activities that are taking place on the Cape. We know that communities want to balance economic development that brings jobs and prosperity with protecting the environment that makes their home so unique. And look, we are on the doorstep of another area, the Great Barrier Reef, that is globally recognized for its significance. We've got 64,000 jobs that rely directly on the reef. We've got Cairns expanding, economic activity and development preceding the case here. It just shows that not only can development and environmental protection coexist, in fact, they can support each other when we look after the environment and look after those jobs that depend on that natural environment too.

JOURNALIST: What options would traditional owners, like [inaudible] if they're in support of the listing and perhaps [inaudible] Queensland Government? Can they go it alone at all?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, look, I'm not going to start speculation. This is a matter for the Queensland Government in the first instance, they need to explain exactly what they're doing with their consultation, and I don't think there's any harm in talking. There's certainly no harm in hearing from local communities. That's never a problem.

JOURNALIST: How long should this process take? Is it something that you think you could sign off on next term if you're re-elected?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: That's really a question for the Queensland Government at the stage. Thanks everyone.