Wednesday, 5 June 2019

 Dr READ (Brunswick) (09:52): Victoria’s coasts and marine waters are a precious asset. As much as 80 per cent of the marine life found in Victoria is found nowhere else in the world. But, sadly, our oceans and coastlines are under constant and increasing threat from plastic pollution, new gas drilling and climate change. Just 5 per cent of Victorian waters are in marine protected areas, and that is only half of what Australia has signed up to under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and about half of what scientists say is necessary to protect endangered species and help ecosystems resist rising temperatures and ocean acidification. It is particularly important to have marine protected areas to preserve stable fish stocks.

Areas such as pristine Westernport Bay and the beautiful Otway Basin are under threat in Victoria from new fossil fuel projects. In Westernport Bay, AGL want to build a giant gas import ship, and on Victoria’s western coastline the government could allow new gas drilling as early as this year. There is also an ill-conceived carbon sequestration project occurring off Golden Beach off the Ninety Mile Beach. So today, on World Environment Day, I call on the government to say no to risky new fossil fuel projects in our oceans and to double the area we protect through marine reserves.