79
EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
OPENING OF ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH BUILDING
CSIRO DIVISION OF ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH
ASPENDALE, VICTORIA 19 MARCH 1990
I am delighted to be here at the CSIRO Division of
Atmospheric Research to inspect your research work on the
changes taking place in the regional and global atmosphere.
Bob Chynoweth has told me directly of the fine work being
done here. It is vitally important work, for there is no
greater global environmental concern than the greenhouse
effect and the depletion of the ozone layer.
The changes in the chemical composition of the atmosphere
now occurring are likely to bring about significant
modifications to climate as a result of the greenhouse
effect. Similarly, the CFCs released into the atmosphere by human
activity are depleting the ozone layer.
Your research into both of these phenomena, and your related
work on atmospheric pollution and the impact of climate
change on water resources, deserve the support and
encouragement of all Australians.
You will be aware that my Government is funding a greenhouse
research program, with most of the money going to CSIRO and
the Bureau of Meteorology. Indeed, I am advised that of the
140 staff here at Aspendale, 20 were hired in the last year
through the Commonwealth's greenhouse research program.
So I am pleased today to be able to inform you that we will
Sbeproviding at least $ 5.7 million a year over the next
three years for greenhouse research.
This will enable CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology to
continue their research, and will facilitate the
establishment of a dedicated research grants scheme
administered by the National Greenhouse Advisory Committeeas
foreshadowed in my Environment Statement last year.
So your jobs, and your work, are secure under us, as they
ought to be.
I have established a Special Working Group on Reducing
Greenhouse Gas Emissions within Australia. At the end of
last year the preliminary report of the working group was
released for public comment.
Early measures can be taken, through such simple changes as
using new energy efficient light bulbs and improving
ventilation and air conditioning systems and through the
accelerated phasing out of CFCs my Government is overseeing.
We will commit ourselves to achievable target reductions in
greenhouse gas emissions, based on scientific assessment and
set in consultation with government, industry and
environmental groups.
We will do this following receipt of the report of the
International Panel on Climate Change later this year. And
we will be working for the inclusion of targets in an
international convention on climate change to bind all the
nations of the world to a program of reducing greenhouse gas
emissions. Ladies and gentlemen,
When I issued my Environment Statement ' Our Country, Our
Future' last July, I said that its announcements, while
comprehensive and vitally important, would not of themselves
see the job done. And earlier this year I undertook to
provide a progress report on the Environment Statement
which I am releasing today.
My Government has, in the eight months since the release of
' Our Country, Our Future', built on the commitments in that
Statement by making a number of important new decisions and
taking further steps to protect the environment. These
include: The transfer of 98 per cent of the Conservation Zone
into Kakadu National Park and the referral of
Coronation Hill and other potential mineral
developments in the remaining 2 per cent area to the
Resource Assessment Commission;
A decision not to move the Sydney naval fleet to Jervis
Bay; Intensification of our campaign to prevent mining ever
taking place in Antarctica, successfully eliciting the
support of more and more countries to our cause, the
most recent being New Zealand
and establishment of an Antarctic Foundation in
Tasmania;
Banning the barbaric practice of driftnet fishing in
Australian waters and taking a leading and successful
role in gathering international support for a ban in
the South Pacific region to be followed by a global
ban; Providing financial support for the Salamanca Agreement
on the Tasmanian forests, and for the agreements
recently negotiated for the South East forests of NSW
and the East Gippsland forests of Victoria;
The preparation of the most stringent guidelines in the
world for new kraft eucalypt pulp mills and the
provision of funding, jointly with industry, for
further research on lowering the chlorine content in
bleaching processes;
An agreement with the Goss Labor Government to conduct
a comprehensive joint land use study of Cape York;
Conclusion of a management agreement with the Goss
Government for the Queensland Wet Tropics World
Heritage area and provision of $ 10 million over three
years for management of the area;
A ban on the importation of non-antique ivory into
Australia, and the successful pursuit of prohibition at
the meeting of the Convention on the Importation of
Trade in Endangered Species ( CITES) in Lausanne last
October; The banning of the use of CFCs in ordinary aerosol cans
and a rate of phasing out of other CFCs which makes
Australia's program the toughest in the world;
A decision for Australia to host the next annual
meeting of the International Union for the Conservation
of Nature ( the IUCN), in Perth in November; and
Announcement of the World Heritage nomination of Shark
Bay in Western Australia.
By any standard this is an outstanding list of environmental
achievements for such a short period, and it is not an
exhaustive one. As the Progress Report on the Environment
Statement shows, very substantial advances have been made
-drready in implementing the numerous commitments I made in
the Environment Statement last July.
In building on that progress in implementing ' Our Country,
Our Future', I am able to advise you today, and through you,
all Australians, of a series of measures which continue our
commitment to the protection of the environment.
World Heriage Listings
Australia now has eight sites on the World Heritage List,
and Shark Bay would be the ninth. Australia is already
acknowledged by the IUCN as having done more than any other
country to advance World Heritage values.
Today I can announce that the sub-Antarctic Heard and
Macdonald Islands will be nominated this year for World
Heritage Listing.
This reaffirms my Government's determination to preserve
that entire fragile region of the world.
Protection of World Heritage Arean
The cane toad is beginning to pose a threat to Kakadu
National Park. Recent research into eradication of the cane
toad, funded by Commonwealth, State and Territory
Governments, has now been evaluated.
Further research on impacts of the cane toad, and short and
long term measures for controlling it, is now required.
The Government will provide an additional $ 1.25 million,
over three years, to CSIRO, for this purpose. We are
seeking a commensurate funding commitment from relevant
States and the Northern Territory.
Mimosa pigra is a fast-growing prickly shrub from Central
and South America which is invading Northern Australian
wetlands at an alarming rate. It, too, is a threat to
Kakadu National Park and Aboriginal lands.
To combat the spread of mimosa through effective biological
control agents, an extra $ 1.25 million will be provided to
CSIRO over the next three years. Funding at this level will
ensure the effective continuity of work already underway.
Preservation of Wilderness
The National Wilderness Inventory, initiated by my
Government in 1986 and accelerated through additional
funding announced in the Environment Statement, will provide
-aW important management tool for assessing the impact of
development proposals on wilderness areas.
To ensure that the Wilderness Inventory is completed within
three years, a further $ 400,000 will be provided over the
period to mid-1993.
Au~ qtralia_' g For~ ntn and Forest industries
There can be little doubt that Australians are becoming
increasingly aware of the need to preserve substantial areas
of our native forests and that they prize highly those areas
which have remained relatively unmodified by human activity.
My Government is committed to this end, but we are also
determined to develop a thriving, secure timber industry,
based on adding maximum value to the product.
We are developing a national forest strategy. A key element
in our strategy will be expansion of the available resource
through the rapid increase in the establishment of eucalypt
plantations to supply expanding amounts of pulpwood. We
will examine all measures to facilitate the establishment of
this resource.
We will require woodchip exporters to commit themselves to
the establishment of plantations. And, in keeping with the
Government's policy of wanting to add value to all our
produce, we will ask all of the major woodchip export
companies in Australia to present to us their plans for
adding value to this product before the end of the decade.
On the issue of paper we are aware that a market acceptance
of somewhat duller papers could dispense with the need for
chlorine bleaches in pulp mills. As our contribution to
opening up this option, we will review the sales tax on
non-chlorine bleached products.
While this, of itself, would not affect overseas demand for
high brightness paper from kraft export pulp mills, we are
prepared to play our part domestically in raising community
awareness of the benefits of non-chlorine bleached paper.
The ACF and the National Farmers' Federation have been
working closely with my Government in the formulation and
implementation of measures, costing $ 320 million, to combat
soil degradation in the Year and the Decade of Landcare.
In the Environment Statement I announced, alongside those
measures, a review of the taxation arrangements relating to
the prevention and treatment of land degradation, including
-r~ tegetation and fencing. That review will be finalised in
time for the 1990-91 Budget.
The Landcare Australia Foundation has the responsibility of
raising sponsorship for landcare education and community
activities. We have decided to provide tax deductibility for donations
to the Landcare Australia Foundation, from 1 April 1990.
The establishment of landcare groups has been proceeding at
a most encouraging rate; indeed there has been a flood of
applications. We will supplement existing funding with an extra
$ 1.3 million over three years to accelerate the
establishment of landcare groups.
Hingnitp Rehabilitation and Of fshnye Platform Remnval
' rhe Government is concerned that appropriate steps be taken
by the mining industry to ensure that environmental
rejuvenation takes place through minesite rehabilitation.
Industry shares this concern.
We will review the taxation arrangements as they apply to
minesite rehabilitation and the removal of offshore
petroleum platforms and announce the outcome in the 1990-91
Budget.
N~ atay and Air Pollutin
My Government is the first Australian Government to propose
the adoption of national water quality standards. The
fouling of Australia's rivers, lakes and beaches has become
a national problem, although constitutionally the
responsibility for water quality lies with the States.
Sydney's beach pollution must be dealt with first and
foremost by the NSW Government. But it is now a national
scandal and my Government can help in ways which, though
modest, may help provide the long-term solution.
Sydney's beach pollution is unlikely to be solved by working
out different ways of pouring more and more sewage into the
ocean. The long-term answer must lie in alternative technologies,
such as the Memtec filtration system and microwave
sterilisation. Dryland sewage disposal methods would avoid
the need to pump sewage into the ocean. Since July of last
year my Government has provided over $ 1 million in support
of these alternative technologies.
W announced recently that up to $ 4 million a year from the
existing Grants for Industry Research and Development Scheme
will be made available for the development of new
technologies in waste and environmental management. Within
that allocation, priority will be given to trialling and
development of new technologies for sewage and effluent
treatment. This will be of relevance not only to Sydney's
beach pollution problem but to the problems of rivers and
waterways in other States.
Unlike the Coalition, which has recoiled from assuming a
strong role for the Commonwealth in acting in the national
interest to protect the environment, we will strive for
national standards of air and water quality and national
strategies to implement them.
We accept the value of an Environment Protection Agency to
co-ordinate this work and will move to establish such a body
in our next term of Government.
Tnfor-mation RAses.-
We cannot move to a truly sustainable society in which the
proper balance between environment and economic development
is struck, and maintained, until we have sound and
comprehensive biological information.
The Government therefore has decided to provide $ 2.4 million
over three years to accelerate the Australian Biological
Resources Study.
This will complement the National Wilderness Inventory and
other work on environmental data bases currently underway.
Biological Diversi-ty
My Government is committed to the survival of a full suite
of flora and fauna species. I pledged in the Environment
Statement that Australia would play a leading role in the
development of an international convention for the
protection of biological diversity. We are calling on the
world to come together to begin formulating such a
Biodiversity Convention.
Australia will offer to host a negotiating session for a
Biodiversity Convention, leading up to the UN Conference on
Environment and Development in Brazil in 1992 which, it is
anticipated, will adopt the Convention.
The Convention will be aimed at arresting the frightening
rate of species loss and developing a strategy to ensure
their future survival.
In playing our part at home, we have established a ten year
-eiidangered species program and we will consider the
enactment of Commonwealth endangered species legislation.
A further element of our strategy to maintain biological
diversity in Australia is a program to ' save the bush' which
I announced in the Environment Statement, and which has
ongoing funding of $ 1.5 million a year.
We will expand the Save the Bush program by providing an
extra $ 2 million over the next three years.
Raccñ ng
If we are to use our natural resources more efficiently,
save energy and reduce pollution, then we must minimise
waste and increase the rate of recycling.
My Government has already adopted a number of measures for
encouraging paper recycling, including trialling recycled
paper in selected Government Departments and removing the
sales tax on a range of recycled paper products.
Today I can announce further measures to help lift our
national performance in the areas of environmentally sound
packaging and recycling.
With the co-operation of the States, Territories and
industry, we will introduce a scheme of " green labelling" of
products on the basis of their environmental friendliness.
In the first instance the scheme will concentrate on
packaging. Under a system of green labels, manufacturers
will have a greater incentive to package products in an
environmentally sound manner.
Once we have tackled this problem we will extend the green
labelling scheme beyond packaging itself and to the products
themselves. In addition, we will develop a national waste minimisation
and recycling strategy once again through a co-operative
approach with the States and industry. We will be seeking
the establishment of minimum goals for rates of recycling.
And through the Australian and New Zealand Environment
Council we will be seeking the co-operation of the States
and Territories to audit the nation's major sources of
waste. A similar survey will be proposed for the nation's
waste and recycling facilities.
We will also review the indirect taxation arrangements as
they apply to equipment used in recycling processes.
Rudall River
Western Australia's new Premier, Carmen Lawrence, has
-riibently announced that there will be no uranium mining in
Western Australia under her Government. My Government
supports that position and as a result the Rudall River
uranium mining proposal will not go ahead.
North Head of Sydney Harbour
Following the relocation of the School of Artillery to
Townsville, the Commonwealth will be able to release
hectares of Army land at North Head for inclusion in the
Sydney Harbour Foreshores National Park.
The facilities which remain, including heritage buildings,
will be used for the headquarters of the Army's Training
Command. This move will, in turn, result in a further
significant area at Georges Heights also being released for
inclusion in the national park.
Fyaner IA1and
We will be assisting the Goss Government to conduct a study
of the heritage values of Fraser Island and the Great Sandy
Region. My Minister for the Environment will be providing a
comprehensive submission to that inquiry on the natural
values the area contains.
When that study is completed, we will determine which areas
mnay be worthy of World Heritage nomination.
My friends,
While each and every one of these new measures will have a
favourable impact on our natural environment, they also fit
into an overall framework of sensible decision-making which
moves us along the path of ecologically sustainable
development. Late last year I initiated a set of processes, involving
government, industry, union and conservation groups, to give
practical effect to the concept of ecologically sustainable
development in the agricultural, forestry, fisheries,
mining, energy, manufacturing and tourism industries.
A conceptual paper on ecological sustainability is being
prepared. Working groups for each industry category will be
formed to recommend to Government the ways of applying that
concept to decision-making for each industry.
For my Government, environmental considerations are not at
the periphery, being brought into the Cabinet room only when
a decision is to be made about a national park or a
rainforest. We are integrating environmental considerations
with our economic decisions, to ensure ecological
sustainability. The Environment Minister is a member of the
Government's powerful Structural Adjustment Committee and
environmental impacts are formally addressed in Cabinet
4Si~ bmissions.
And on the key question of constitutional powers, my
Government has demonstrated its preference for negotiation
with State Governments but also its preparedness to
override particular States where the processes of
consultation and co-operation do not yield a result which we
Judge to be in the national interest.
I reaffirm all of the undertakings I have given in relation
to the use of the Commonwealth's constitutional powers.
So in conclusion, I thank you for inviting me here to see
first hand the most valuable work being done by CSIRO on
climate change. The CSIRO enjoys a fine reputation for
outstanding research and development work. Your research
program here is a credit to all of you.
And I can assure you that you will continue to receive the
support from my Government that you deserve just as we are
committed as custodians of the environment to pass on to
our children, and theirs, an environment protected, an
environment enriched, a better country, a brighter future.
* 1. 1990-91 1991-92 1992-93
million)
Greenhouse research
Cane Toads
Mimosa National Wilderness Inventory
Tax deductibility for Landcare
Australia Foundation
Extra Landcare Groups
Save the Bush
Australian Biological Resources
Study
East Gippsland agreement 5.7
0.5 0.5 0.1 0.2 0.3 5.7 0.5 0.5 0.1 0.3 0.5 1.0 1.0 5.7 0.25 0.25 0.2 0.4 1.4
7.3 9.6 9.7
4.5 4.8
11.8 14.4 9.7