Senator SIEWERT (Western Australia—Australian Greens Whip) (23:10): I rise tonight to speak about the marine bioregional planning process that is being undertaken around our great country. We are now at the final stages of one of the most comprehensive environmental assessment projects Australia has ever attempted: the development of five bioregional plans, to cover the south-west, the north-west, the north, the Coral Sea and the temperate east. This process has the potential to establish a national network of marine protected areas based on rigorous scientific analysis. Marine sanctuaries are the best tool we have to protect our marine environment. They protect fish stocks by increasing the size and number of fish, support fisheries management, build the resilience of marine ecosystems to impacts like climate change, and boost tourism and recreation as well as providing employment in tourism, research and sea country management. This project is crucial because Australia is home to an amazing diversity of marine environments, yet less than one per cent of the five major bioregions is protected from threats such as oil and gas spills, seabed mining and trawling. Comprehensive surveys of the ecological values of the bioregions have been completed and draft maps of the proposed reserves have now been released for public comment. The objective of the bioregional planning process is to recognise that our oceans contain many iconic, ecologically important and fragile places that deserve protection, in exactly the same way as other precious environments, such as the Kakadu and Uluru, are protected by national parks. Yet, in each bioregion, the level of marine protection provided for in these draft plans does not even meet the minimum scientific standards. The size and connectivity of the marine parks in the drafts are woefully inadequate to address the challenges of overfishing, pollution and climate change or to provide a basic level of protection from the dual threats of mining and trawling. I challenge the government to show greater courage and ambition by developing final marine reserve maps that provide a substantially higher level of marine protection. It is a depressing state of affairs when mining and trawling—economic interests with easily quantifiable dollar figures—are registered by the government, while conservation values have to be repeatedly shown to be politically palatable and in the best interests of the country and its population. Nowhere demonstrates this better than the north-west, where oil and gas development has taken the highest priority, yet the impact of an oil spill could be ecologically and environmentally devastating. This is not worst-case scenario scaremongering either; Australians experienced the devastation of a spill just on two years ago when the Montara project spilled millions of litres of oil into the ocean off the Kimberley coast. Similarly, the whole world was fixated on the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In both cases, the responsible companies have been granted new licences and new opportunities to explore and mine and drill in our oceans. Indeed, the recent expansion in the number and size of the exploration licences in the north-west substantially reduces the opportunity to establish marine reserves, and it is disappointing that so many new exploration leases have been granted while the bioregional assessments are still taking place, including nine new licences announced just last Friday, in the middle of the public consultation period. This is a blatant effort to lock in oil and gas access around iconic places such as the precious Ningaloo marine area, Shark Bay and the Rowley Shoals—all areas that I am passionately committed to making sure that we have into the future—and it permanently excludes much of this region from even the possibility of a marine reserve. But I am glad to see that there is a growing awareness that conserving our marine environment also has tangible economic worth. Research by the Centre for Policy Development has helped establish the financial worth of our marine economy and the value of conserving it into the future. The CPD estimated that the value that is currently unrecognised in economic accounts was equivalent to $25 billion a year. In comparison, offshore gas and oil exploration and production are estimated to be worth $24 billion annually. The research has also highlighted that tourism accounts for one-quarter of the recognised value, at $11 billion a year, while commercial fishing accounts for only $2 billion. When set out this way, the economic imperatives of trawling and mining should no longer dominate the debate. Because the EPBC Act requires the minister to consult the public on any draft plan, the public has the opportunity to demonstrate their support for and put in some comment on the levels of protection that have been proposed. So far, consultation has shown that Australians have a high level of interest in protecting their marine environment, with 39,000 submission being made on the south-west proposed reserves, overwhelmingly in favour of increased protection. I can only hope that this will be matched by a willingness from the minister and the government to be more ambitious when releasing the final maps for the south-west. I have fought long and hard for the marine environment in this area to get a level of protection. Similarly, I hope that the Australian people will continue to voice their desire for marine protection in the other bioregions and make submissions on the draft marine reserve plans. Before I conclude, I would like to point out and acknowledge that there are a number of committed and passionate marine conservationists here in Parliament House this week. Together, they have prepared reports that assess the most important parts of Australia's oceans, including iconic reports on the south-west, the north-west and the north bioregions. I encourage you all to look at those so as to better understand the amazing marine treasures that these bioregions have to offer. Australia's ocean territory is the third largest on the planet and the richest in biodiversity, from the Perth Canyon in the south-west, where blue whales come to feed; to the humpback haven off the Kimberley coast; to the tropical waters of north-east Arnhem Land, which are dotted with sacred sites, endemic corals and colourful fish; to the Coral Sea, one of the last places on our blue planet where ocean giants such as whales, sharks, tuna, marlin and swordfish can still be found in big numbers; and to the Lord Howe seamount chain and rise, which supports important habits for sharks and sea birds in the temperate east. These icons show us what we stand to lose. I hope that we can be more ambitious in our expectations and avoid the charges levelled by Dr Callum Roberts in his book Unnatural History of the Sea that 'those charged with looking after the sea set themselves unambitious management targets that simply attempt to arrest declines rather than rebuild to the richer and more productive states that existed in the past.' If we want to rebuild our marine life and ensure that it is retained into the future, only a full network of scientifically derived protected marine areas can deliver us this outcome. We have some of the most beautiful marine life on this planet. Australia has some of the most important biodiversity in marine environments in the world. We have a duty to protect them. It should be our honour to protect this most wonderful marine environment.