Press conference in Cairns with Minister for the Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek

MATT SMITH: Hi I’m Matt Smith, I am the candidate for the Australian Labor Party for the seat here of Leichhardt. I am here with Pip from Cape York NRM, Stu from Terrain, Minister Plibersek and, of course, Senator Green.

We have an announcement which I’m thrilled to be a part of today around shoring up and preventing erosion on our creeks and gullies right across the far north and right across Queensland. And this going to be a win for just about everybody. What it does for the farmers is when their gullies and their creeks are shored up with good vegetation around them, it prevents vermin, they get a cleaner crop, a better crop, cleaner water, it’s great culturally. So many of the songlines and storylines follow the creeks throughout Queensland. And it’s fantastic for the reef because it keeps that silt and sediment off our most precious natural resource. And when our reef is protected, that means jobs for locals right here in Cairns, right across the far north and right across Queensland.

I’ll step away now and leave the details to the guys who are on the ground, and I’d like to introduce Pip from Cape York NRM.

PIP SCHROOR: I’m Pip Schroor I’m the CEO of Cape York NRM. Cape York NRM thanks the Australian government for this reef funding. This will continue the sediment reduction work that we’re doing in Cape York on our eastern catchments. We are partnering with great organisations like South Cape York Catchments and Cape York Water Partnerships, and this project will focus on erosion litigation, but also sustainable land practices in Cape York, reducing bushfires, grazing land management practices to improve the condition of the land. We’ll also be working on a variety of land councils across Cape York also with Aboriginal corporations and land trusts.

STEWART CHRISTIE: Hi, my name is Stewart Christie, I’m the CEO of Terrain NRM. I’d like to thank Minister Plibersek, Senator Green and the Australian government for this fantastic investment. It’s a six-year project that will go through to 2030 and it’s about fixing gullies and eroding stream banks across the wet tropics region. Our target is to reduce 21,000 tonnes of sediment going to the Great Barrier Reef, and effectively what we are looking to do is to work with the whole heap of partners across our region for environmental outcomes as well as economic outcomes. So, you know, we see this as a great benefit and a win for the environment and a win for jobs. So thank you very much to the Australian government. Thank you.

NITA GREEN: Well, thanks, everyone. My name is Nita. I’m a really proud regional Queenslander, but I’m also the proud Special Envoy for the Great Barrier Reef. It’s fantastic to be here today with Matt Smith, our local Leichhardt candidate, and, of course, with Minister Plibersek, and the real, you know, stars of the show – Pip and Stewart and their teams, who are doing incredible work here in far north Queensland.

I said at the outset as I became the Special Envoy for the Great Barrier Reef that I would spend just as much time in the catchments as I do in the water itself inspecting the reef. And actually I’ve ended up spending more time in our catchments because they’re so important to the health of the reef. About two and a half years ago I spent my first visit here with Terrain at one of the sites, and I’ve seen the work that they’ve been doing across this region. And I’ve visited many NRM groups across Queensland to talk to them about the important work they’ve been doing to improve water quality.

What we know is that when you improve the water quality that is running off into the reef, it has a direct result on the health of the reef and its resilience. And particularly its resilience to climate change. That is why our government is investing a record amount of money into water quality improvement plans, and this program that we’re talking about today, the Landscape Repair Program, is just one of the different ways that we are working with local groups to do that.

I’m very proud of the work that is being undertaken here and across Queensland. This funding goes all the way from Cape York down to Bundaberg, so it shows how important our catchments are all across Queensland. And we know the reef is under pressure. We know it’s under pressure from climate change, but we know our farmers are under pressure as well. They are facing after Cyclone Jasper up here particularly a difficult and wet winter. They’ve got a lot of pressure going on with cost of living. And we know how important it is to work with farmers.

We’ve heard from John today – we’re on his farm – how incredibly important it is to have that collaboration, to have that understanding and to work together in partnership. And that’s what our government has sought to do from the very first day we talked about protecting the reef. It was all about developing those partnerships. Working with science, working with traditional owners, working with farmers is how we will get real results when it comes to the health of the reef.

We want to protect the reef for generations to come. And this record investment is another step forward to do that. Thank you. I’ll hand over to the Minister.

TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Thanks so much, Nita. And I thank John for having us on his farm today. It’s really good to see the work he has done, like so many farmers to reduce runoff, reduce nutrients running into our waterways ending up on our reef, reduce soil erosion ending up on our reef as well.

The $200 million program we’re announcing today will go to six lead organisations that will partner with traditional owners, farmers on the ground and other land management groups to really tackle the enormous problem of erosion and runoff in our Great Barrier Reef. We expect to reduce erosion by the equivalent of 130,000 tonnes a year. That’s about 870 blue whales worth of sediment. It is an enormous amount. And as Senator Green has said, that sediment has a catastrophic effect on the Great Barrier Reef. It effects seagrass meadows and causes the seagrass to die. It coats coral and stops the coral from growing. And, of course, it also impacts the look of the water of the Great Barrier Reef – that sparkling, clear, blue water that people come from all over the world to see.

So, I’m very excited about these projects that cover from the tip of Cape York to, as Nita said, down to Bundaberg and catchments right across the north of Queensland. It gives a real opportunity to work with people on the ground to reduce sediment runoff and to deal with some of those other issues as well, like the feral pigs that are causing so much damage to our streams, creeks, gullies and so on.

And this is just one of the ways that we are supporting and protecting the Great Barrier Reef. The Australian government is making a $1.2 billion investment to protect the reef for future generations and to protect the jobs and farming activity that comes with that. Of course, we’re acting on climate change with our trajectory to net zero and our safeguard mechanism. We’re doubling science funding for the reef. The previous government cut science funding so that Reef HQ closed and we had laboratories at the Australian Institute of Marine Science that were closed and unusable. We’re doubling funding for reef science.

We’re working with rangers to deal with issues like crown-of-thorns starfish, to deal with weeds and feral animals on some of our reef islands. And we’re working with the Queensland government to do things like the phase out of gill net fishing to better protect those dugongs and dolphins and other species that are so vulnerable.

This is a really sharp contrast with the Coalition government. We’ve got Peter Dutton who’s a Queenslander who basically doesn’t show his face when it comes to protecting the reef. He’s been the leader for close to 900 days, and I challenge anyone to find anything significant that Peter Dutton has said or done to describe how he will protect the Great Barrier Reef. In fact, everything he’s said shows that the reef will be in danger under the LNP.

They’re abandoning climate targets. Their solution for the energy transition is a nuclear reactor. They’re blocking laws in the Senate right now that would deal with issues like illegal land clearing. And the same can be said of the Coalition environment spokesperson – where is he when it comes to the reef and standing up for this beautiful, world significant natural wonder and the jobs and the economic activity that rely on it?

Any questions?

JOURNALIST: Maybe a question for Pip. What specifically are we looking at here today? Like, to the naked eye it’s just a cane field.

CHRISTIE: So, effectively, what we’re seeing here is what we’re working across is typical of Far North Queensland. So, you know, the cane industry is a very big industry and sector and essentially important to the economy of Far North Queensland. So, engaging with farmers and helping them change and improve practices which reduce runoff which helps them remain productive is the intention and part of the program that we’re dealing with today. And what you’re seeing today is a series of creeks which, you know, are adjacent to the cane farms and what we’re looking to do is kind of repair those damaged creeks and kind of rehabilitate those with planting trees which can have a whole range of benefits with stabilising the riverbanks and increasing shade, improving productivity of the land. So we are working with farmers and community groups and Landcare groups to end up ensuring that we see these types of initiatives rolled out across Far North Queensland.

JOURNALIST: With all due respect to John, is this a good example of what people should be doing, or is he getting there or is he in early stages?

CHRISTIE: Yeah, I mean, I think this is a fantastic initiative for you because, you know, you will see in some areas where effectively farmers have cleared right up to the edge of their block and there’s no, you know, revegetation or green stuff helping to kind of stabilise the banks. And what we need is, you know, that ability for farmers to want to not clear up to the bank, that they’ve got trees kind of growing around that kind of creeks which then helps stabilise. So it’s a great example of where you can start.

JOURNALIST: Trees and creeks beside the creek is a good thing?

CHRISTIE: Absolutely.

JOURNALIST: To build something like this, or even just have any kind of sediment runoff protected, how much does it cost per farmer?

CHRISTIE: It depends on effectively the location and the site. You know, like, obviously you can imagine if we’re doing something in a really remote location, you know, getting plant and equipment and people out there is much more expensive than actually doing it, you know, near Cairns. So, the costs can vary, and effectively what we’re looking to do is get the best value-for-money outcomes for the taxpayer and the farmers and the outcomes that we can deliver for the region.

JOURNALIST: So, what’s the rough – I mean, for someone that, like me, who has absolutely no idea about farming.

CHRISTIE: Yeah, so effectively there’s some indicators that what we pay is somewhere around sort of $1,300 per tonne of sediment saved, so that’s some of the metrics that we end up working to. So, there’s a whole lot of science and calculations that sit behind there but that’s a metric that we end up working towards reducing and what we’re looking to do to deliver value for money outcomes.

JOURNALIST: And from your experience, how many farms, roughly? Would all of the farms have to participate in something like this?

CHRISTIE: No, you know, they – it would be fantastic if we, you know, even had – the Australian government is significantly increasing investment across the region. There was a study maybe seven or eight years ago which sort of indicated that to repair all the stream banks, river banks and gullies across the Great Barrier Reef would need somewhere between 16 to $18 billion. You know, so it’s a massive problem. And what we are doing and aim to working to do is to capture those high priority catchments or locations within stream banks which are higher impacts and by fixing those high impact sites then we’re actually contributing to making a difference to the reef. So, if you’ve got a spare other $12 billion or so that you want to put our way, we’re happy to help you with that.

JOURNALIST: Could I ask as well – I’m not sure if this is the right question for you – but you guys spoke earlier about having a lot of collaboration with farmers and farming groups for this funding. What collaboration exactly has there been? Is it on the ground with farmers or purely at that organisational level, meeting them?

CHRISTIE: Yeah, so Terrain have been working – you know, Terrain and other groups in the region and have been working with cane growers and other organisations. So effectively some examples of some of the work we’re doing there so Joel, who’s here today from Cairns Canegrowers, effectively that’s a key coordination point between the work that we do, the scientists, the practical work and then actually kind of engaging the farmers on a day-to-day basis to kind of give them, you know, solutions to the problems that they’re looking for. So, you know, a lot of the time they’re kind of going, “Well, if I reduce fertiliser on my paddock, you know, how much do I reduce it by, how do I kind of end up applying this practice? What’s the costs? What’s the benefits?” So effectively, you know, people like Joel effectively play a crucial role in providing that bridging support and that advice to those farmers.

And then, you know, from a practical perspective, there’s then funding programs that well, if you want to end up doing a project that helps, you know, machinery effectively that, you know, is not affordable by a farmer on its own but it can be dealt with, shared with a cooperative. That’s another example of collaboration with farmers.

JOURNALIST: Are there any restrictions as far as – I know with other completely separate funding posts like Cyclone Jasper there were some restrictions with farmers being able to access that funding because they weren’t necessarily primarily a farmer, they also had a business or a contracting business and that provided more of their income and made them ineligible for the funding, despite having sediment, you know, and runoff and whatnot. Will this funding have any restrictions on whether farmers have to be primarily a farmer to access it?

CHRISTIE: This funding program doesn’t have those restrictions. It’s all about, you know, their location, what the condition of their property is and the condition of that river bank. So it’s going to be really – and their appetite to be involved.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Sorry, just before you go, just further on the partnerships, there’s obviously partnerships with cane growers and First Nations groups.

SCHROOR: So in the Cape York region 60 per cent of the land is native title land. So a big part of our program is working with First Nations landholders, Aboriginal corporations and land trusts. We’re partnering with two fantastic organisations in the Cape that will continue their work with those organisations as well, and that’s South Cape York Catchments and Cape York Water Partnerships. So, while in Cape York the gully sites regenerating and remediating on a number of land tenures, we’re also working on grazing land and management practices. So that’s the stocking rates which will reduce the sediment. Also, the unsealed roads in Cape York, which also contribute sediment to the reef. So this project will be working across a lot of organisations, pastoralists and traditional owner groups.

JOURNALIST: This maybe is one for Pip – I’m not sure – but this all feels like a drop in the blue whale when you look at the amount of sediment that’s washed into the sea following Cyclone Jasper. How much – do you know how much sediment went into the ocean at that point?

SCHROOR: All I can say is what I’ve seen. And when you travel up to the Cape, and even flying to the Cape, the damage and the sediment that’s been caused from that cyclone and cyclonic flooding event is significant.

JOURNALIST: Does this pale in significance into the amount of sediment that will be saved here compared to what went into the sea then?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: That’s a very negative take.

JOURNALIST: It is a very negative take, I’m sorry.

SCHROOR: I don’t know. That data hasn’t yet come in. People are working on that, like Cape York Catchments and South Cape York Catchments and the Cape York Water Partnerships are collecting that data. But, yeah, it was a very impactful event in the region.

GREEN: The practicality – and the reason why these catchments are so important to the reef is because we do have a wet season here, particularly all the way up into Cape York. And we saw that during Cyclone Jasper. So we are prone to flooding. It’s why this is good farming land – because we have a lot of water. But it also means that we need to invest in this work and stream bank remediation work, the erosion that we're repairing. It's why it's so important that we get this work done. And it's why the collaborations are so important.

I can give you an example of a project that I had the ability to have a look at. It was a wetland revegetation project. It was on farmland, so the farmer was invested in that project, but he had traditional owners and rangers working to revegetate the wetland. And then we had scientists come in and actually measure the difference between the runoff a few metres down the road and the runoff that was coming out through the wetland. And what we found was actually investing in this wetland revegetation acted like a huge sponge on the property and really saving some of that nutrients and sediments from running off into the ground.

So that’s why this is a priority area for us because we know that it is prone to flooding. And that’s why Terrain through this program is getting $30 million of the $200 million fund that we’re providing. Pip and her team, $9 million to work on the grounds that she’s working through. It’s an incredible investment in amazing organisations. And we know that they’ll put it to good use because we’ve seen the work that they’re doing.

This is all about upscaling the really important work that groups like Terrain have already done. And we know that this type of investment over the next six years will have a significant impact on the runoff and the health of the reef going forward.

JOURNALIST: I have a question for the Minister. We’ve heard this funding will stay for six years and it’s $200 million, but we also know that it’s going to take billions and billions to fix something like this. If Labor is elected, I guess, will this continue? Will there be more funding in the future?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, in fact, this is not the only funding that we’re spending in this area. We’ve got other projects with the Natural Resource Management Groups that are all about revegetation and land management. We’ve got work with the Reef Guardian Councils, dealing in particular, with issues like feral pigs that we know cause so much of the erosion around the streams and gullies. So, this is one very significant part of the work we're doing to prevent sediment runoff, to prevent erosion, to deal with the feral animals that are causing some of the erosion. It’s one of the programs that we’re investing in.

JOURNALIST: I’ve just got some questions for the Minister if you don’t mind. How are negotiations going with the Greens and the coalition on the Nature Positive Partnership?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: We are absolutely continuing to talk across the parliament with people to – in the hope that they will support the second tranche of our environmental law reform. The second tranche of our environment laws have something for everyone. The Greens should be voting for these laws because they establish Australia’s first Environment Protection Agency, something that environmentalists have been campaigning for for decades. That new EPA would have strong new powers and penalties. It would have stop work powers; it would take maximum environmental penalties from under $15 million to $780 million.

There’s something in this for business as well. And the business organisations have been urging the Liberal and National parties to support the laws because they want to see the faster, clearer data that comes from the establishment of Environment Information Australia and the faster approvals that you get when you have that better quality data. I’ll continue to work with Senators across the political spectrum and urge them to support the laws as they are in the Senate at the moment.

JOURNALIST: How confident are you that you will settle it before the world nature summit in Sydney this month?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, I’m very much looking forward to the Nature Positive Summit in Sydney from the 8th to the 10th of October. We’ll be able to showcase to the world the enormous progress we’ve made in just two years. In just two years, we’ve established the nature repair market, we’ve passed the first tranche of our environmental law reforms, including a range of very important reforms there. We’ve protected an area larger than the size of Germany of Australian land and sea towards our targets of protecting 30 per cent of our land and 30 per cent of our oceans by 2030. We’re investing $1.2 billion in protecting the Great Barrier Reef and keeping it off the endangered list at the World Heritage Committee. We’ve made enormous progress in just two years, and I’m looking forward to sharing that with the world.

CHRISTIE: And what will you tell the world if you do not settle this before the world nature summit?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, the negotiation on legislation continues. But what is frustrating, of course, is we’ve got extremists in both the Liberal and National Parties and the Greens holding this very sensible law reform to ransom. We’ve got sensible progress on the table. It’s gone through the House of Representatives. We are one vote away from establishing the country’s first Environment Protection Agency and having faster, clearer decisions for business proponents that want to get projects up and running. We’re one vote away from that, and it’s a shame that the Liberals and Nationals are teaming up with the Greens to prevent progress, just as they did when they voted against the carbon pollution reduction scheme which meant an extra 80 million tonnes of carbon dioxide pollution entered our atmosphere and we were 10 years delayed in the transition to cheaper, cleaner renewable energy.

JOURNALIST: Can I just have one more, if you don’t mind? Several councils across Queensland under mandatory rules put in place by the state government. Cressbrook Dam operator, Toowoomba, expect it to cost over 200 million. Upgrades are also needed to be done in South Burnett, Logan, Cairns, Mackay et cetera. Local government want both state and federal governments to chip in with providing funding for the upgrades so they’re not left with budget black holes. Has the federal government received any request for funding from Queensland local government, including Toowoomba Regional Council, for funds to help with mandated upgrades to locally owned dams, Toowoomba dam and Cressbrook Dam?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, not only have we received requests; we’ve responded to them. We’re in Cairns today. We’ve put $107.5 million into upgrading Cairns’ water supply. Just recently I heard the progress update on Mount Morgan. Mount Morgan is a community that was carting water for two and a half years, and we’ve almost completed the 28-kilometre pipeline to give Mount Morgan and surrounding communities its secure access to good quality fresh drinking water. We’re working with the Queensland state government on projects right across Queensland upgrading local water supplies and making sure that Queenslanders have the water, good quality water, they need to drink, to run their businesses, to support their local economies. And, of course, we continue to work with the Queensland government to make sure that our water policies are good for the environment as well as for local communities and industry. Thanks very much.