Jennie George (Throsby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will, certainly. In concluding the discussion that has proceeded this afternoon, I have tried to follow most of the contributions that have been made. I genuinely want to thank all members who took the time, in the short space of time since the report was tabled, to be involved in this discussion. I must say that one conclusion I came to was that all the contributions that were made confirm the timeliness of our report and the 47 recommendations that come with it.

On behalf of the committee I want to make it clear that we have never sought to sensationalise the issue, but the ‘business as usual’ approach must come to an end. The individual contributions this afternoon and into the evening confirm the appropriateness of the theme of our report, which is on the front page: ‘The time to act is now.’ I am pleased that the contributions made by a range of members reinforced the practical relevance of our considerations for real people and real communities who are feeling the impacts now. For them it is not a theoretical debate; it is real. You only have to look at the front cover to see what is happening in the electorate of the member for Forrest or at the back page to see the homes precariously perched on top of a primary dune in the electorate of Dobell.

The member for Bonner spoke, and I must say that we visited Moreton Bay and that I can see and understand why she loves that area so much. Recommendation 24 picks up a very good water quality project that operates in that catchment, and we are recommending that that be a forerunner of other environmental accounts that we might put in place. I think the member for Canning epitomises the responsibilities of a member in an area of growing population. Mandurah and the surrounding areas have huge population pressures, which are being faced by a lot of councils. They also have the pressures of development near a Ramsar listed wetland, and of course they are not unique in having canal estates with some of the attendant problems that we saw.

Like me, the member for Shortland has a lake in her electorate, Lake Macquarie. It and its surrounding areas are particularly vulnerable, and I thank the community and the council for their submissions to the inquiry. We did not get to visit the member for Lyne’s electorate, but the contribution of Mr Keys as a witness is there in full. I think the problems of Mr Keys at Old Bar really highlight the level of uncertainty about issues to do with insurance and legal matters.

I would encourage the member for Solomon to continue reading the report, because if he continues to read it he will find a very nice photo of himself and witnesses who appeared in Darwin. Similarly, I say to the member for Lyons that we have visited Tasmania. There is some very interesting work going on among the scientists in Tasmania in regard to the science of climate change.

The member for Hindmarsh and the member for Port Melbourne have similar issues. To the member for Hindmarsh I say that I have been there and visited the Gulf of St Vincent. Recently we visited Port Adelaide, which is another hot spot. To the member for Port Melbourne I say that I had the great pleasure of living in his electorate for some time when I lived in Melbourne in a former life before I came to federal parliament, and I know the beauty of the bay there as well.

The members for Fowler, Lowe, Makin and Isaacs were all members of the committee. They spoke in the debate and they played a very important role as members of the committee, and I thank them particularly for their contribution. I note that the member for Lowe could not help but refer to the media coverage that our report has generated. I do want to thank all the media for helping the committee raise public awareness about these very important issues. Having a QC on a committee like ours sure helps, particularly when we got into very tricky matters relating to insurance and legal liability. Recommendations 19 and 23 of our report recommend that governments give some urgent attention to issues regarding liability and insurance matters, and I thank the member for Isaacs for his assistance with that.

It is a great committee. We work together very well. Each member has their own particular contributions to make to it. But I cannot let this occasion pass without extending my special thanks to the deputy chair, the member for Moore, Dr Washer. The bipartisan nature of this report continues a historic tradition since I have been a member of the committee, and the member for Dunkley referred to this in his contribution. I am delighted that the report came out as a bipartisan report, and I think much of the credit goes to the member for Moore and the way he handled the challenges of the issues we were confronted with.

On a personal level, I want to thank Professor Bruce Thom and Alan Stokes from the National Sea Change Taskforce for their input and advice. I thank them for their support and encouragement. The Department of Climate Change provided very valuable input into our report. The many initiatives that have already been undertaken in the short time that the department has been in place speak volumes about the quality of that department. We have their Smartline project, and we are all anxiously awaiting the first pass National Coastal Vulnerability Assessment. That will certainly move the agenda along substantially.

This report, like any report, is the result of collective endeavours. Our committee was supported throughout so well by our secretariat, currently headed by Julia Morris. I want to acknowledge the work of the secretariat in providing research and administrative support. I want to thank Sarah Hafez, a member of my electorate staff, for the assistance she has provided in the ongoing history of the development of coastal policy. I thank the secretariat for their wonderful research and administrative support. We had 28 public hearings, 170 witnesses, over 100 submissions and nine site inspections. Getting all of that organised is no mean feat.

Of course, the report would not have appeared without those who made the submissions and appeared before us. I trust that all your concerns have been properly described and dealt with. We do not have any magic solutions to some of the problems that came up before the committee, but we do believe that our report and its recommendations chart the way forward and bring forward your issues of concern, be you an individual property owner, a local government authority or a regional community. Whatever concerns we heard, at different levels of engagement on these terms of reference, this is, I think, the first time the federal parliament is dealing with these issues in a comprehensive way.

Before I conclude, one person deserves the special thanks of us members of the committee—that is, the inquiry secretary to the committee, Dr Kate Sullivan. Dr Sullivan has been with us since day one, and I think we all appreciate, as members of committees, the importance of continuity and having Dr Sullivan with us from day one till the end. It is really hard to express in words her commitment and enthusiasm, her professionalism and her knowledge. I just want to say, and I hope the Clerk of the House of Representatives is listening, that people like Dr Kate Sullivan and their professionalism—and her work is exemplary, I think—reflect very well on the quality of assistance that parliamentary staff provide for our work. So thank you, Kate; you did a great job.

Thank you, finally, to Ministers Wong and Garrett for the reference to our committee back in March 2008. I know it has taken time to respond but it is time that we believe was well spent. Now I just want to say that we all eagerly await the government’s response to the contents of our report and the 47 recommendations that go with it.

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