27 June 2024
Topics: Great Barrier Reef avoiding UNESCO ‘in danger’ listing
E&OE
Mark Levy:
UNESCO, like I mentioned, is being accused of double standards. The UN agency is under fire over its recent report on the Great Barrier Reef. It states the Reef is under serious threat. They’re demanding Australia set ambitious climate targets to protect the site and they’re giving us until next year to come up with a plan of action, but not everyone’s convinced. People who live near the World Heritage Site say it’s healthy, they say it’s all just fear mongering. In the report, UNESCO says reducing our emissions will help save the Reef, but the Shadow Environment Minister Jonno Duniam says the agency needs a serious reality check. Australia accounts for just 1.3 per cent of the world’s emissions. He says UNESCO needs to stop blackmailing Australia and apply the same standards to other high emitting countries. He’s calling on the federal government to stop the peer pressure and stand up and defend our world famous Reef. The Shadow Environment Minister Jonno Duniam joins me on the line. Jonno, good morning to you.
Senator Duniam:
Good morning, Mark. Good to be with you.
Mark Levy:
Lovely to catch up as always. UNESCO won’t back down. They’ve been raising the alarm about the Reef for years now, but it’s just all scaremongering, is it?
Senator Duniam:
Well, I think as you outlined in your introductory remarks there, the fact is Australia is a very, very small contributor to overall global emissions and if what UNESCO says is to be believed, that is that global warming is warming the waters that flow into the waters around Australia and are affecting the health of the Reef. Now, if we are only just a touch over one per cent of global emissions and countries like China, for instance, are much bigger contributors, how is cutting emissions in Australia even harder than we have already going to fix anything when countries, again like China, are doing nothing about that? It is a fool’s errand to continue to jump, try to jump over the bar set by UNESCO when I frankly think all it will do is damage our economy. I mean this blind and ideological pursuit of emissions reductions without any regard on what impact these decisions will have on our economy is incredibly damaging, we’re seeing that now with higher power prices. And to then go and cut harder, phasing out a whole range of industries that, yes, do emit, is going to have economic consequences which are going to make life harder in Australia than it already is.
Mark Levy:
We all love Australia. We all love the Great Barrier Reef. It’s one of our great parts of living in Australia. You can go up and have a look at the Great Barrier Reef. We have been working to preserve it since the 70s. Locals in the area say it’s healthy. I know I learned when I did geography at high school that coral bleaching occurs naturally, so doesn’t that just put this issue to bed? Why is UNESCO getting involved?
Senator Duniam:
Well, you’re right. Everyone’s proud of the Reef and no one wants to actually damage our environment. Everyone wants to do the right thing, but it’s groups like UNESCO and of course activist groups here in Australia, environmental activist groups, that try and push us to this limit. You are quite right, reef bleaching occurs naturally and you know what? Coral grows back, and the Australian Institute of Marine Science showed that in their 36 years of record keeping of the health of the Reef I think it was about a year ago, we had record coral cover, so things have improved. Now UNESCO every year or every so often, rather, issue a report. Back when we were in government they said you’ve got to heavily invest, so the then Morrison Government invested over a billion dollars, that’s a huge amount of money, taxpayers money, gone into that. So we acquiesce. They then said to this government, you need to cut harder and faster on emissions. They legislated their 43 per cent target. Again, it still wasn’t enough and now they’re telling us we’ve got to go harder. When does this end? And this is why I say UNESCO would do better to go and actually tackle issues elsewhere. Let us get on with things. And you know what really kills life around the Reef? Talking it down. The tens of thousands of people that work on the Reef, the tourism business operators, the communities that they support, I mean this Labor Government have already banned gill net fishing off the Reef in response to UNESCO’s demands. There’s an industry gone because we are bowing to their demands and this is why I say Tanya Plibersek, Anthony Albanese and this government need to stand up in Australia’s interests rather than bowing to Geneva’s.
Mark Levy:
Yep, you’re so right. That’s getting to a point where, yes, we live in the best country in the world, but we can’t do anything in this country. They’re taking everything away from us. Out of interest before you go, what’s Tanya Plibersek saying about all of this? I know you’re calling on her to stand up and defend the Great Barrier Reef. What’s the minister responsible saying?
Senator Duniam:
Well, the indications from her so far are that they intend to up the amount of emissions they’re going to take out of Australia. So I expect we’ll see an increased emissions reduction target from this government. You know, what economic impact that has, I doubt they’ll even give two minutes consideration to. Will that drive up power prices, will that make it harder for businesses to operate, will we fail to attract investment from overseas as a result, I suspect they’ll be the fallout but that will not be part of their consideration. So I’m very concerned that she’ll just buy into what UNESCO was saying, make it harder to do business and pay the bills here in Australia, but at the same time talk down Reef health. She’ll give credence to what UNESCO are saying about this Reef about to completely collapse ecologically and I think that is a very negative act for the environment minister to commit.
Mark Levy:
Yeah, couldn’t agree more. Jonno, you speak a lot of sense. I really appreciate you joining us on this Thursday, mate. Keep up the good work.