THE HON TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER

THE HON NITA GREEN
SPECIAL ENVOY FOR THE GREAT BARRIER REEF
SENATOR FOR QUEENSLAND

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
PRESS CONFERENCE
CAIRNS
FRIDAY, 14 MARCH 2025

SUBJECTS: FUNDING FOR THE GREAT BARRIER REEF, PROTECTING REEF JOBS, OPPOSITION’S NUCLEAR PLAN.

MATT SMITH: Good morning. My name’s Matt Smith. I’m the ALP’s candidate for the federal seat of Leichhardt. With me is the Special Envoy for the Great Barrier Reef, Senator Nita Green, and, of course, Minister Tanya Plibersek.

The Great Barrier Reef is one of the great natural wonders of the world and something that we here in Cairns and the Far North have been entrusted with. It is a source of wonder, it is a source of beauty, and it is a source of income for so many people across Cairns and the Far North. My birthday every year is celebrated with a diving trip to the Great Barrier Reef. I got my daughters into diving on the Great Barrier Reef - it has enhanced their love of nature and their love of their community. In fact, my youngest decided to do her work experience on the dive boats, and she loved it. She now sees that there is a future for her in Cairns should she want it.

The Reef supports all of us. It supports our jobs. It supports our communities. It supports our sporting groups. Without it, none of us would be here. And I am proud every day to stand up with the Labor Government that supports the Reef and the jobs that it creates.

It is one of the most beautiful places on the world – in the world, sorry. It is the reason that I’m going to attend the reef Climate and Energy Forum next Tuesday, and I hope all candidates, regardless of colour, come along to explain to the community why they support this important environmental and economic part of our world.

Nita, over to you.

NITA GREEN: Thank you. And it is good to talk about our local businesses here in Far North Queensland, because we know that all of them rely on the Great Barrier Reef. And that’s why I’m really pleased to stand here shoulder to shoulder with Matt Smith, our candidate for Leichhardt, and Tanya Plibersek, our Minister for the Environment, who has spent the last three years standing up for the Great Barrier Reef.

I’ve been privileged to be the Special Envoy for the Great Barrier Reef over the past three years. It’s been a privilege to be the Special Envoy for the Great Barrier Reef over the past three years. And that has meant that I have had the privilege of meeting people who live and work on the reef all across Queensland, but particularly here in Cairns. And I know that the tourism industry here in Far North Queensland understands how important the reef is to their economy and to their jobs. And we know that protecting the reef means protecting Queensland jobs.

At the next election there is a very clear choice between a Labor Government who has stood up for the Reef over the last three years or a Peter Dutton Coalition Government who will put the Reef at risk. Now, we know that there are a number of ways that Peter Dutton will cut jobs at the next election. He will put reef jobs at risk and he will literally cut the jobs that protect the reef.

We know that there are around 700 public service jobs that protect the reef day in, day out. Now, these are people who work at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the Australian Institute of Marine Science and, of course, with our department. The majority of these jobs are in regional Queensland. The headquarters of AIMS and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority in Townsville, but they have offices here in Cairns as well. And what Peter Dutton has said is that he will cut 20 per cent of these jobs.

So we are due to lose 150 jobs of the people who are out there every single day monitoring the reef, restoring the reef, working with tourism operators. These are hands-on jobs, and Peter Dutton is saying that he will cut them at the next election.

So there is a very big risk to those jobs here in our local community. But, of course, the risk to jobs in the reef is bigger than that. We know that thousands of people in Queensland rely on the reef for their job or are indirectly supported by the economy of the Great Barrier Reef. And all of those are at risk because of Peter Dutton’s policies. We know that Peter Dutton’s plan to introduce expensive, risky nuclear power to Australia will put the reef at risk. It will put the reef at risk because it will mean that there will be delays to climate action and it will cost Australia’s reputation of all of those tourism visitors who come here every single year.

We’ll have a lot more to say about Peter Dutton’s nuclear plan and the impacts it will have on the reef over this election. Because we know that this election is about cost of living. But if you earn your living on the reef, then this really matters to you at the next election.

There’s one more choice that needs to be made at the next election, and it’s not by voters here in Leichhardt; it’s by Jeremy Neal, the local Liberal candidate. He needs to decide whether he supports the jobs that are behind me, the tourism operators that have worked so hard to build this town up and have kept our economy going or whether he supports Peter Dutton and the risky, expensive nuclear plan that will put the reef at risk.

It's a really easy choice for Matt and I. We will always – always – back local jobs and we will always back the Great Barrier Reef. But Jeremy Neal has not – has not – said whether he supports these jobs. Instead, he’s out there spruiking Peter Dutton’s nuclear plan.

So, it is a good idea for Jeremy Neal to turn up to the Debate next week and to talk about what his plans are to protect the reef. And it is a good idea for people in Leichhardt to really consider the impact of a Peter Dutton Government on the most important economic asset to our town – the Great Barrier Reef – that Tanya and I have been working so hard to protect over the last three years, that we will continue to protect in government for many generations to come.

TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Well, thanks so much, Nita Green, the Special Envoy for the Reef, and thank you very much, Matt Smith, Labor’s candidate for Leichhardt, for your words this morning. We know that the Great Barrier Reef is an international icon, but it’s also a really big economic driver for jobs in this community, as both Matt and Nita know.

I’m very pleased today to announce an additional $80 million of funding for the Reef Wise Wetlands Program and the Reef Wise Urban Program because we know that what we do here on land matters for what’s happening in the waters of the Great Barrier Reef.

One of the big threats to the Great Barrier Reef is water quality. We know if there’s pollutants or sediment flowing on to the reef that can coat seagrass, it can coat coral and prevent them growing. It means that those seagrass meadows that are so important for the turtles and the dugongs stop growing properly, and it means the coral will stop growing properly.

So, the investments that we see on land to protect the reef are really important for the health of the reef and, of course, they’re really important for local jobs. When we invest in rehabilitating wetlands, we’re providing jobs right here on land. When we work with farming communities to improve what they’re doing to stabilise gully and riverbanks, to prevent sediment running off into the reef, we’re creating jobs right here on land. And when we work with local councils to improve the urban water quality flowing on to the reef, that’s jobs right here on land.

The biggest risk to jobs on the Great Barrier Reef is a Dutton Liberal Government. As Nita has said, Peter Dutton has made very clear that they will cut reef jobs if the LNP is elected. And you don’t need an imagination for this, you just need a memory. When we came to government three years ago, 100 jobs at the Australian Institute of Marine Science were at risk because the previous LNP Government had cut funding for AIMS. They were closing laboratoriesm jobs were going. We doubled funding for marine science. We saved a hundred jobs and created another hundred jobs up and down the coast of Queensland working with AIMS and working on the Reef to protect it.

We know that the other great risk to reef jobs is Peter Dutton’s expensive and nutty nuclear plan, because all this does is delay climate action. It means 2 billion extra tonnes of carbon dioxide pollution entering our atmosphere because coal keeps going for decades longer. It adds costs to local businesses and homes. We know your average household will pay $1200 extra on their energy bill every year if Peter Dutton’s plan proceeds. And we know, of course, that there’s additional risks like hot water entering our environment from the cooling water that nuclear reactors need.

At the next election there is a really clear choice for people that care about the reef and care about the 64,000 jobs that rely on the reef. The choice is between the LNP that saw the reef at risk of an in danger listing from UNESCO and Labor that’s protected it from that in danger listing. The choice is between an expensive nuclear plan from Peter Dutton and investment in renewables under Labor. I’ve approved 80 renewable energy projects so far since coming to government. That’s enough to power almost every single Australian home. We’ve added 15 gigawatts of renewable energy to the grid already since coming to government - Peter Dutton’s plan is for nuclear some time in decades to come, adding to costs and keeping coal-fired power stations going longer.

The choice is between a government that will invest in the jobs of the reef, and that’s the tourism operators, it’s the scientists, it’s the team who are out there doing crown of thorns starfish control in the reef, in the waters of the reef - or cutting those jobs as the Liberals did last time they were in government. The choice for protecting the reef at the next election is clear.

Any questions?

JOURNALIST: The Coalition has said it’s caused a Budget blowout, all these public sector jobs increases. What do you have to say to that?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, isn’t a bit rich for the Coalition to be talking about Budget blowouts? They promised a Budget surplus in their first Budget, well over a decade ago, and they promised a surplus every budget after that first Budget. They never delivered one single surplus during their whole time in government.

So far Jim Chalmers as Treasurer has delivered two surpluses. So, I don’t think we’re going to be lectured to by a bunch of people who promised surpluses they never delivered when we have actually been paying off Liberal Party debt since coming to government.

JOURNALIST: They’ve said the 20 per cent cut in public sector jobs are mostly going to be felt in Canberra where the increase has been. What do you have to say to this?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, I just think it shows how little – how little – they know about where reef jobs are based. This isn’t a bunch of public servants in Canberra. It’s people who live in Cairns, who live in Townsville, who live in our regional communities who will lose their jobs. And, you know, the absolute fact is last time they were in government a hundred people that worked at the Australian Institute of Marine Science were about to lose their jobs because of the funding cuts to AIMS. This is not something that we need to imagine – all we need to do is remember what was happening three years ago with reef jobs. That’s the risk again.

JOURNALIST: It’s still going to take a while to roll out the renewable energy plan. How does that [indistinct] is the reef still going to suffer in the interim?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, we’ve actually added 15 gigawatts of renewable energy to the grid already. This is a change that is happening right now. Thousands of jobs already out there. People building wind farms, solar farms, batteries, transmission lines. Those jobs are real. They are in our economy and in our communities right now. We’ve added 15 gigawatts of renewable energy to the grid already in just over two and a half years.

The biggest risk here is Peter Dutton’s nuclear plan. Peter Dutton himself says we’re talking about sometime in the mid 2030s if everything goes well, if he can get the state governments to agree to overturn nuclear bans, if he can get the technology right. I mean, this is a recipe for delay and it’s a recipe for taxpayers to spend $600 billion of their own money to build the expensive nuclear plants. And that’s if it all goes according to plan. What we’ve seen consistently overseas is that the timelines blow out and the costs blow out for nuclear. So you’re talking about something that might happen years after Peter Dutton has left Parliament.

JOURNALIST: What exactly is 15 gigawatts, sorry.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: 15 gigawatts is more than Peter Dutton plans to add to the grid with all of his nuclear reactors. For a comparison, 15 gigawatts is more than the 14 gigawatts that all of Peter Dutton’s nuclear reactors will add to power at the cost of $600 billion under Peter Dutton’s plan. We’ve added 15 gigawatts of renewable energy, and the private sector has been paying for it.

JOURNALIST: Would that power an entire town? I’m just trying to conceptualise it.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Yes, it’s a very substantial amount of additional energy.

JOURNALIST: You’ve announced $80 million in funding towards Reef Wise projects. Can you give us some examples of where that money is going?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Yeah, absolutely we can. So the Reef Wise Wetlands Program will be open for applications, funding applications, now. And the Reef Wise Urban Program will be open shortly for applications. The sort of projects that were done in the past are the restoration of wetlands with councils, in particular. When you restore a wetland what you do is recreate – what we’ve formally had is farmland, we’ve worked with local councils on parks, restoring parks. If we rebuild a wetland, what we provide is reeds and mangroves down to the ocean and those reeds and mangroves stop the sediment going on to the reef. But they also provide really beautiful recreation areas for local communities.

So, what we’ve been doing with local councils up till now is working on these restoration projects. They’ll have a pathway through them, a pedestrian path, sometimes a cycling track. And you get the wetlands regrowing and you get the urban green space with local councils as well.

JOURNALIST: So it’s just wetlands?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: The $50 million Wetlands Program will go to wetlands, mangroves. It’s coastal restoration projects. And we’ll be working with local government and with other applicants to do that restoration work.

JOURNALIST: And the other $30 million?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: And the $30 million is an urban program. We know that a lot of councils have put a lot of energy into improving the water that’s going from stormwater, for example, back on to the reef. But there are still some parts of the coast where we need to upgrade those water facilities to make sure that the quality of the water that’s making it on to the reef has had any pollutants removed from it. It’s really important for water quality, and it’s something that councils are very keen to partner with us on.

Okay, great. Thanks, everyone.

JOURNALIST: Matt, the Douglas Shire Council is advocating for a $6.6 million water reservoir expansion. How important is something like this to the region given the current stage 1 water restrictions and previous flooding

SMITH: Yeah, look, this came across our desk in February and I’ve met with Mayor Scomazzon about it and other projects in Port Douglas and the Douglas shire more broadly. I think that my track record for advocating for council projects, particularly around water, speak for itself at this point. We were at the Cairns Water Security Project yesterday. I had Minister Plibersek to inspect how that’s going along, and it’s coming along really quickly. They expect it to be finished by the end of next year. So we’re thinking – of course I’ll advocate for anything that is important to the region. And, you know, we’ll go into further discussions with Douglas shire about what this is going to look like.

JOURNALIST: How could this project be useful in natural disasters, do you think?

SMITH: Yeah look, natural disasters, as we discovered during Jasper, create their own challenges, and we do understand that water was a priority for Douglas and as far away as Cooktown as well. So, look, it’s definitely something that the region is asking for and it’s something that we’ll take a really close look at.

JOURNALIST: Thank you.

​​END