Parliament

On the 14th November, Senator Larissa Waters moved the following motion in the Senate -

The Senate notes:

1. Recent reports in the Sydney Morning Herald that the Prime Minister personally promised Tara resident Ms Debbie Orr that nobody should be forced to have a gas well on their property;

2. The Coalition's election platform that access to prime agricultural land should only be allowed with the farmer's agreement - the farmer should have the right to say yes or no to coal seam gas exploration and extraction on their property; and

On November 13, Larissa Waters moved a motion in the Senate calling on the government to save the reef's waters, our coral reefs, fishing grounds and seagrass meadows from another 3 million tonnes of smothering dredge spoil.

That the Senate-

(a) notes:

The Senate notes:

1. Coal seam gas mining threatens our land, our water, our communities and our climate.

2. The Senate calls on all parties to commit to not approving any more coal seam gas developments in Australia.

For further information on the Greens' work to stop CSG, visit our campaign page. 

The Senate notes:

1. The Government estimates that the Reef Rescue program has stopped the equivalent of over one million wheelbarrows worth of sediment run-off entering the Great Barrier Reef.

2. At least 193 times that amount of sediment has been approved by this Government for offshore dumping in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.

3. Scientific understanding is that added sediment in the marine environment has destructive impacts on seagrasses and corals.

1.   The Senate notes that:

a)      Australians are outraged that our national parks are under threat from logging, grazing, shooting and tourism developments

b)      It is too late to secure by regulation national protection for national parks in this parliamentary term

The Senate

(a) notes that Australia's national environment laws only regulate this country's most environmentally destructive projects which threaten our most precious species and wild places.

(b) calls on the Government to amend our national environment laws before this parliament rises to ensure these responsibilities cannot be handed to state or territory governments.

Senator Waters:

To move - that the Senate -

(a) notes:

(i) the World Heritage Committee's draft decision on the Great Barrier Reef states that to avoid the reef being added to the World Heritage in Danger list, Australia must turn around the ‘limited progress' to date, and take ‘urgent and decisive' action on its earlier recommendations to prevent new ports in pristine areas, and reject damaging port expansions,

Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Great Barrier Reef) Bill 2013 - Second Reading Speech

1.   The Senate notes that:

a)      Cape York’s Quinkan region is home to rock art galleries and cultural sites of great cultural significance, with some sites dated to 30,000 years old;

b)      Much of this art and cultural heritage is not adequately protected and is open to mining exploration activities; and