TRANSCRIPT: PERSONAL EXPLANATIONS - FRYDENBERG'S FALSE CLAIMS - MONDAY, 26 MARCH 2018
PERSONAL EXPLANATIONS - FRYDENBERG'S FALSE CLAIMS
The SPEAKER: The Manager of Opposition Business has indicated to me he's been misrepresented—
Mr BURKE: A number of times.
The SPEAKER: We will start with the first. You claim to have been misrepresented?
Mr BURKE: I do. Last week the environment minister issued a statement claiming I had welcomed a supertrawler to Australia and was not responsible for it being banned. The facts are these: when the supertrawler MV Margiris first came to Australia there was no power under environmental law to refuse it entry. I introduced amendments to the House to provide the environment minister, who was then me, with the power to ban the supertrawler. Those laws were put to the House on 13 September 2012, with the member for Kooyong and the member for Flinders voting against them. Once the laws were in place I used them, and the supertrawler left Australian waters.
Mr Speaker, I seek to make another personal explanation.
The SPEAKER: Does the Manager of Opposition Business claim to have been misrepresented?
Mr BURKE: Again, yes.
The SPEAKER: The Manager of Opposition Business may proceed.
Mr BURKE: Last week on Radio National the Minister for the Environment and Energy claimed that his government was not reducing environmental protection in the oceans, on the basis that I personally had only introduced draft management plans in 2012. This is incorrect. In 2012 final management plans for marine reserves were made legislative instruments. The minister should be aware of this, as they were subject to disallowance votes and he personally voted six times that they be disallowed. On each occasion the disallowance vote failed.
Mr Speaker, I seek to make another personal explanation.
The SPEAKER: Does the Manager of Opposition Business claim to have been misrepresented?
Mr BURKE: I do.
The SPEAKER: You may proceed. Mr BURKE: Last week the Minister for the Environment and Energy issued a statement that I had never properly introduced management plans for marine parks because they 'didn't pass the disallowance period in the Senate in 2013'. There is no such thing as a requirement for a legislative instrument to have to pass a disallowance period in order to become operable. It is law immediately and continues to be so unless disallowed. The management plans I introduced were not disallowed. Considering the minister has registered 85 legislative instruments, I would have thought he was aware of this.
Mr Speaker, I seek to make another personal explanation.
The SPEAKER: Does the Manager of Opposition Business claim to have been misrepresented?
Mr BURKE: I do.
The SPEAKER: You may proceed.
Mr BURKE: On 22 March on a Radio National report on marine parks dealing with the consultation I had personally undertaken in 2012, the Minister for the Environment and Energy, Minister Frydenberg, claimed I made the decision 'without proper consultation', and fisherman Bruce Davey stated that I had personally made the decision 'without even consulting with any fishermen'. Any claim I did not adequately consult on marine parks is false. I undertook six rounds of consultation, held 250 stakeholder meetings personally attended by over 2,000 people, and received almost three-quarters of a million submissions, which is almost six times more submissions than the minister's process received. Even the government's own hand-picked review panel found that my consultation had been extensive, with the report saying that a common initial comment from stakeholders was: 'We've already been through this. Can't we just get on with it?' With respect to the criticism made by the fisherman Mr Davey, not only did I consult with fishermen; on Sunday, 6 May 2012 in Cairns, I personally consulted with him to conduct a meeting about the marine parks.