Doorstop interview in Townsville with Minister for the Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek

SELINA STEAD, CEO OF THE AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF MARINE SCIENCE: Thank you very much for your time. I would like to start by acknowledging the Bindal people on whose land on which we are today. I’d also like to pay my respects to Elders past, present and future.

I am thrilled to be able to welcome our Minister for Environment and Water, the Honourable Tanya Plibersek MP. And I’m deeply delighted to welcome the Special Envoy to the Great Barrier Reef, Senator Nita Green. And also our colleague also based here in Townsville, Edwina Andrew.

I would like to just say a brief few words and just say that when I came in 2023 for my interview, I was blown away by the National Sea Simulator that we are all here to see today. I’d actually never seen such world-class facilities that could monitor the environment, with our coral reefs that have to have that resilience, and also what helped my decision to really be part of the team here in Australia was seeing the investment that the government put in to these amazing facilities which we are all in today.

The combination of that support for both the National Sea Simulator, which we affectionately call SeaSim, and RRAP, the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program that has brought together an unrivalled number of scientists of every different discipline is really why AIMS is showing why Australia truly is the ocean superpower that it is.

Now I get so excited and carried away, but I’ve been told just a couple of minutes, so I’m now going to hand over to Senator Nita Green. Thank you.

NITA GREEN, SPECIAL ENVOY FOR THE GREAT BARRIER REEF: Thanks, Selina. And we could listen to you talk about marine science all day long because you’re so passionate about it. So is your team here at the National Sea Sim and headquarters right here in Townsville.

I want to first begin by thanking the team here at AIMS. It’s been a tough couple of weeks for the people of North Queensland and, of course, the staff located here at the National Sea Sim. I know that it was a difficult time and a challenging time, but the staff here really stepped up. The facility here was cut off. The road that you saw when you came in was cut off, and we had people staying here overnight, leaving their families, to maintain what is an incredible facility.

So I want to begin by thanking those staff and the whole team here AIMS not just for the work they do day in, day out but, of course, the work they did over the recent North Queensland floods. We’re incredibly proud of their efforts to keep this beautiful facility running during a difficult time.

This is a world-class facility, and we’re really proud of it. That’s why the Federal Government is investing in AIMS and in the green science more broadly. Of course, Townsville is proudly the home of marine science in Australia, and I would argue, the world. We’ve got the home of AIMS here, the home of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, and this really is the place where we are creating world-class research and science to inform our protection efforts of the Great Barrier Reef.

The Great Barrier Reef contributes $6.4 billion to the economy and supports 64,000 jobs. It is worth investing in, and that’s why our government’s investing $1.2 billion Great Barrier Reef. As Special Envoy for the Great Barrier Reef, I’m proud always of the team here of this world-class facility and of the investment that our government is making to the Reef.

I want to thank the minister for coming back to Townsville -- she’s been here many times – and for visiting AIMS today to see some of the incredible extensions to have been delivered by the team here. Thank you, Minister, and thank you Edwina Andrew for joining us today. It’s good to be back in Townsville after what has been a difficult couple of weeks. But the resilience and the pride of the people in this town continues to shine through, and that goes for the staff here as well. Thank you.

TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Well, thank you so much, Senator Nita Green, for that introduction and for the amazing work you’re doing as the Reef’s special envoy. You have really played such an important role in highlighting the challenges and the great opportunities that the Reef brings.

I want to thank Selina Stead and her team here at AIMS for their involvement today and for the amazing job they do day in, day out, and say it’s terrific to join Edwina Andrew here as well.

I know that Queenslanders, particularly northern Queenslanders, have been having a really tough time with the extreme weather events that we’ve been seeing in recent times. And I know the team here at AIMS worked through an extraordinarily difficult time. Senator Green has told you that AIMS staff stayed while the facility was cut off, and they continued to make sure that the science, the world-leading science, that is done here was able to continue uninterrupted during the heavy rain and flooding that Townsville experienced.

We know that Townsville residents have been doing it tough, and the first thing I wanted to say is that the Albanese Labor government will be there with you not just today and tomorrow but however long it takes for recovery to be completed. We are working hand in hand with the Queensland Government to make sure that recovery efforts really support the individuals, businesses, the farmers and the whole of the Townsville and North Queensland community that’s been affected by flooding.

Turning to the very exciting announcement today, I’m delighted to be here to officially open the $43 million expansion of the sea simulator - SeaSim. This is a globally-leading facility. It was already terrific and we’ve now close to doubled its capacity. It means that researchers from all over Australia and all over the world will be able to come here to collaborate, to work out how we best protect our reef from short-term pressures like the fresh water inundation we’ve seen during the flooding that has a bad effect on coral reefs, and to the long-term threats like climate change that continue to challenge our reef.

As well as today’s wonderful opening of the expansion of Sea Sim, I’m very pleased to announce an additional $8 million for the science that goes into reef adaptation and protection. Globally-leading work is being done here to help us understand how we can help the Great Barrier Reef and coral reefs around the world adapt to challenges like climate change, to recover from severe weather. So this is just part of the $1.2 billion that Senator Green has told you about that we are investing in the Great Barrier Reef to protect it and preserve it for future generations, both for our own sake, it is a globally significant environmental wonder, but also for the jobs, the economy that depends on our Great Barrier Reef and the tourism and the science and other jobs that depend on the reef as well.

And as well as the investments that you see here today, we are investing in upgrading Reef HQ. This is a facility that Bob Hawke first opened. He said he hoped it would bring the Great Barrier Reef on to shore so more Australians and international visitors could appreciate the wonders that lie in the ocean. We will continue to work and invest in protecting the reef, protecting the jobs and tourism opportunities that come from it, protecting it as a globally-significant natural wonder and it’s only Labor that does this.

When I took on this job, AIMS had facilities upstairs that were closing and a hundred jobs were threatened. We doubled funding to AIMS to protect those jobs and to rebuild those science facilities. And when I took over, Reef HQ was riddled with concrete cancer and falling apart. Because of the Prime Minister’s leadership we’re rebuilding Reef HQ. When I took on this role and Senator Green became the reef envoy we were facing and ‘in danger’ listing from UNESCO that would have are undermined reef tourism and threatened reef jobs. We turned that around with the UNESCO saying that the previous government and our government, the difference was a little like night and say. It’s only Labor that invests in the reef and it’s only Labor that will actually tackle climate change, the greatest threat to the reef. Peter Dutton’s plan is for nuclear reactors, an extra 1.7 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide between now and 2050. Thanks.

Any questions?

JOURNALIST: Do you fear that an LNP government could threaten this facility in particular?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, what we know is when the LNP was last in charge they let the facilities here run down. There was a risk to a hundred jobs being lost from AIMS. When I toured this facility, the first time I visited I saw the labs that were locked up because they couldn’t be used because the funding simply hadn’t been there to invest in upgrades and upkeep.

This facility is doing globally significant research. The people who work here are some of the best scientists in the world. They are committed to discovering the keys that will help the Great Barrier Reef, and coral reefs globally, to survive through our changing climate. The idea that a hundred jobs will be lost and laboratories will be a mothball and were left rundown shows the value that the LNP put on the science that’s done here and on the reef itself.

JOURNALIST: Is the a time line as to when this expansion will be completed?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, the expansion of Sea Sim is officially opened today, but that’s not the end of this work. We’re currently working on upgrading those laboratories and other facilities to make sure that we continue to improve the facilities that are available for our world-leading scientists.

JOURNALIST: What sort of benefits will we see with the increase? Like, what sort of jobs? How many jobs will we see?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, we protected a hundred jobs that were at risk right here. We added a hundred jobs right here. The estimate for Reef HQ, for example, is a thousand jobs during construction. So you will see hundreds of extra jobs supported and created because of our investment.

JOURNALIST: How critical is the timing of this expansion in relation to ongoing climate change and threats posed to the reef?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, it’s absolutely vital. And we know that the work that’s being done here is absolutely cutting edge. I know that Selina Stead will want to talk to you about some of the exciting projects here but we’re doing things like discovering how we encourage coral to spore and then how we scale that up so it can have a significant impact. We’re not talking about little bits of coral reef seeding here and there; we’re talking about taking what’s done in laboratories, scaling that up so that it has an impact across the vast areas of our Great Barrier Reef. And then also sharing that work with countries around the world that have coral reefs that are facing the same challenges as we see in Australia.

Australia has experienced bleaching in recent years. But globally we’ve seen global bleaching events too in recent years. So the collaboration that our Australian scientists do with the scientists from overseas, particularly in those countries that also have coral reefs, really gives us hope for the future.

JOURNALIST: I’ve got a couple of questions from Parliament House in Canberra. When did you become aware of plans for new legislation to effectively protect the future of salmon fishing in Macquarie Harbour?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, we’ve been working as a government to make sure that in Tasmania the salmon industry has a future. We know that across Tasmania, salmon jobs are very important. And we also know that Tasmanians love their natural environment. They love it because it is a beautiful, but they love it, too, because it is a very important driver of economic prosperity in Tasmanian tourism and environmental tourism are great contributors to the Tasmanian economy.

JOURNALIST: So you were involved in the decision-making process to develop the new legislation?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I’ve been involved talking to our candidates like Anne Urquhart and Rebecca White all the way through my time as Environment Minister. I’ve also been talking very closely with the Prime Minister who is determined to see strong economic growth in the state of Tasmania and strong environmental protections as well.

JOURNALIST: So how can you promise this legislation while you’re separately reviewing salmon farm licences?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, because I am the decision maker I’m not going to comment on individual decisions that might be pending. What I’ve been saying very clearly in general terms is that we understand that the salmon industry is important to Tasmania, but we also understand that Tasmanians and Australians more generally love the natural environment of Tasmania and they want us to protect it.

JOURNALIST: I’m curious about the environmental impacts of the floods?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Thank you for asking that question, it’s a really important one. Obviously while there are extreme weather events, our first concern as a government is making sure people are safe. We need to put people first. We need to make sure that it’s safe. We need to offer every support, both physically – we had our Defence Force personnel out there doorknocking on the ground. We need to economic support to individuals, to businesses, to farmers, to communities, to local government. But we know that floods will have environmental impacts as well, and we need to tackle those – both for the sake of the environment but also for the sake of the Queensland economy. We know that environmental tourism, particularly on the Reef, is a very big part of the Queensland economy, and bouncing back means making sure that our natural environment is ready to go for tourism once again.

There will be widespread impacts. We know that there’ll be land erosion impacts and so on. And in our oceans - it’s a strange situation because we know that rain lowers ocean temperature and that helps with the ocean warming that is one of the key contributors of bleaching. But fresh water inundation is not good for coral reefs. They’re a salt water system. And particularly when that fresh water is coming off land bringing all that sediment that makes it all cloudy and brings with it nitrogen, fertilisers, other pollutants, potentially plastics. So a lot of the work that Senator Green has been doing on land has been working to reduce the flow of polluted waters on to the Great Barrier Reef. And I’m very pleased that we’ve got many of these projects underway, but we know that with an extreme flooding event like the one that we’ve seen there will be an environmental impacts. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and AIMS will be doing the science to determine how big those impacts are and what we can do to reduce those impacts.