Press conference, Cairns

I've been working with ODA for many years in my role as the Special Envoy for the Great Barrier Reef and now as the Assistant Minister for the Pacific and Tourism. They have been engaging with government and with stakeholders about what the ocean economy needs to be sustainable in the future and to ensure that we have a healthy ocean, not just here in Australia but across our Pacific region as well.

And I can say that Jas and I had long conversations about why Cairns would be the very best place for this summit to be held, and I'm really pleased that we've been able to host the delegations here over the last couple of days, to have important conversations about sustainable ocean management, about our Pacific region and the innovation and ideas that are coming from the Pacific region about the ocean-climate nexus that we will talk about more through the COP31 process, but most importantly, for people here living in Cairns, what this means for our jobs and our economy.

Cairns is one of those communities that understands implicitly how important it is to have a healthy ocean and a healthy environment because we know that that the Great Barrier Reef supports 77,000 jobs and contributes $9 billion to the economy. And nowhere is that felt more than right here in Far North Queensland. It's why we are champions of not just this conference but of all the work that Minister Watt is doing to protect our ocean and to protect the Great Barrier Reef.

And of course, we saw in the last Budget an investment in the reef protection, which means that we will be able to keep working and protecting and maintaining the resilience of the Great Barrier Reef for many generations to come. Of course, the ocean is much bigger than the Great Barrier Reef but because we're in Cairns today, I just wanted to acknowledge how important that industry is to the jobs here.

And before I hand over to the Minister, the other really important part of this conference has been the inclusion and the voices of Pacific leaders, and I want to acknowledge their participation in this conference. Pacific people are ocean people. Pacific leaders are ocean leaders.

And we've got a lot to learn from their contribution. I want to thank them for being here today over the last couple of days, being a part of the conversations that we're having, showing that leadership, and working with us here in Australia in partnership so we can make sure that our Pacific region benefits from these conversations as well. I'll hand over to the Minister.

MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Well, thanks very much, Nita. It's a pleasure to join you back here in Cairns, and you do such a fantastic job as a strong advocate for regional Queensland but also, of course, in your roles as Assistant Minister for Tourism and for the Pacific. Really, thank you for the ongoing work that you're undertaking in those spaces.

As Nita mentioned, it's hard to think of a more appropriate place to hold an ocean leaders’ summit than right here in Cairns – on the doorstep of the Great Barrier Reef, all of the tourism and jobs that comes with it, but of course, one of the most fragile ecosystems anywhere in the world that we all have an obligation to protect and restore moving forward. Can I echo Nita's comments in thanking Ocean Decade Australia for hosting this conference?

I've got to know this organisation well over the last few years, both in this role as Environment Minister and also previously as the Fisheries Minister, and Ocean Decade Australia do a fantastic job bringing together the different perspectives that exist about ocean use and ocean management, creating a safe place for people to have conversations about what the future of our ocean is.

So we really thank you, Jas and Lucy and the whole team, for putting this event on. As I mentioned, this conference is a really important event for Cairns because it puts Cairns at the forefront of discussions about how we can sustainably manage our ocean moving forward. As Nita has mentioned, we're very honoured by the presence of a number of Pacific leaders, some of whom I'm going to be meeting with over the course of the morning to talk about the shared future and shared responsibility that we have to protect and restore the Pacific Ocean, and to make sure that we have the balanced approach that the Albanese Government takes on so many issues to ensure that we are protecting the ocean environment while building a strong ocean economy.

There are plenty of good environmental reasons for why we need to protect and restore and conserve our ocean environment. It's home to magnificent species that are seen nowhere else in the world. And of course, our ocean generates so much oxygen that we breathe and absorbs so much carbon that we produce.

So, very strong environmental reasons for us to protect the ocean. But of course, the ocean is the foundation of so much economic activity both in Australia and the Pacific as well, whether it be our tourism industry, our fishing industry, our energy industry, finance sector. All sorts of reasons that jobs depend on good ocean management.

So having the conversations with different parties at this event is a really good way to plan the future of our ocean protection systems. I've made three announcements while being here, and I'll just quickly run through them for you. First of all, I'd like to introduce to you Australia's new Sherpa to the Ocean Panel, Mr Tony Worby.

We're really honoured to have someone of Tony's stature when it comes to marine science and marine management take on this role from someone who's known very well in this part of the world, Dr Russell Reichelt, who's done a terrific job in this role as well. The role of Ocean Sherpa is to do with a panel of about 18 different nations, including Australia, who are trying to set the highest possible standards across the world for ocean management.

And Tony will now be the key spokesperson, if you like, and key advocate on behalf of Australians when it comes to those international discussions around ocean management. So again, Tony, we really welcome you to this role, and we're looking forward to working with you there. Secondly, today I've announced that we're taking the next step as the Australian Government towards developing a new Sustainable Ocean Plan.

This is a plan that will put forward concrete actions from the Australian Government working with Traditional Owners, with industry, with environmentalists, with scientists about how we can make sure that we do have a healthy ocean environment in the future and a growing ocean economy. So that plan will be circulated for consultation shortly, and it's been good to have a discussion with people about that today.

Thirdly and finally, I've announced that the Australian Government will be providing just over half a million dollars to a number of different Traditional Owner groups right up and down the coast of Queensland to assist them with managing, obtaining, storing, and sharing traditional Indigenous knowledge when it comes to ocean protection and reef protection. We know that with the advances we're seeing in technology, whether it be drones, AI, or other forms of technology, there are incredible new opportunities for Traditional Owners, who have known things about the ocean for tens of thousands of years, to be able to use that technology to better understand what is going on in our ocean, to share that information with researchers, but also to have a sense of ownership over that information as well, which is really important in respecting their cultural values.

So, lots happening in the ocean space. Obviously happy to take questions on this and then we might move on to any other matters of the day. But first of all, can I introduce Jas Chambers from Ocean Decade Australia to talk to you a little bit more about this event?

JAS CHAMBERS, OCEAN DECADE AUSTRALIA CHAIR: Thank you, Minister. Hello, Jas Chambers, Chair of Ocean Decade Australia and co-convener with Dr Lucy Buxton for the 2026 Australia and the Pacific Ocean Business Leaders’ Summit. Hello.

Malo e lelei. Bula vinaka. We have many, many people here from across the Pacific and also First Nations people from Aotearoa, as well, of course, from this region and around the country, our Indigenous brothers and sisters.

It has been an absolute privilege to welcome people here to this spectacular location for this event. We very deliberately came to Cairns. Of course, Assistant Minister Green has been a strong advocate for this area.

Why did we come here? We came here because Cairns is the embodiment of ocean economy, ocean livelihood, and society and culture. This town is reliant on the ocean economically for jobs, for livelihoods, for recreation and also for the enjoyment, the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef.

So this was an obvious place for us to come to have conversations that are tense about the use of the ocean and also the protection of it. And we appreciate the difficult role of an environmental department, an environment minister, to hold that line and sit at that line of the decision making around how to use the ocean without using it up. That's what our organisation Ocean Decade Australia is all about.

We think about that constantly and we engage with stakeholders across every sector and every industry. We consider the ocean our client and pretty much everyone else a stakeholder. Doing that means that we bring fishers, mining, oil and gas, shipping, ports, infrastructure, subsea cable people, think of all of those uses of the ocean.

And the complexity of that means that is a cross-portfolio issue for government, and so we welcome today a Sustainable Ocean Plan revision that we look forward to seeing soon and looking at the opportunities in there for how we will bring those different interests together across portfolios which means across sectors. At the summit we have had representation from all of those different sectors.

That is a very unusual room to be in and we are honoured to be able to bring people together with very different views. What we can see is that people's values systems do inform their decisions about how they use the ocean but what we know everyone has in common is that they all respect this space and what we're about is trying to build the rooms where we have the respect for each other to have difficult conversations about how we're going to manage that use.

That’s the ocean breeze telling me to wrap up. Thank you very much. MURRAY WATT: Any questions on the summit or ocean issues before we do other things?

JOURNALIST: On the Traditional Owner announcement, could you step us through some of the corporations that are receiving funding? MURRAY WATT: Yeah, so obviously we can get you the individual organisations and some of them are mentioned in the press release. But to give you a flavour of the types of projects that are being funded through this new expenditure, there are Traditional Owner groups all across Queensland who already play an active role in the management of the Great Barrier Reef, and that's important, not just for respecting the culture, traditions and historical ownership of the Reef by Traditional Owners, but also because of the incredible knowledge about the Reef that has been built up over tens of thousands of years amongst Indigenous people.

Now, you know, modern science obviously has an important role to play in helping us understand and protect the Great Barrier Reef, but so do things that have been known about by Indigenous people for tens of thousands of years. And this is a really effective way of bringing together contemporary science with traditional knowledge to make sure that we have the best possible approaches to managing the Reef going forward.

As I've said, some of the funding will include providing drones, the use of AI, other new forms of technology so that we can get better understandings and make better use of that traditional knowledge and ensure that it's shared with researchers and the wider community so that we can all get a better understanding of what we need to do to protect the Reef. JOURNALIST: Sorry, is this just further detail on already budgeted for allocations in the May Budget, correct?

MURRAY WATT: This money was contained in the May Budget but it hasn't been announced previously as a specific item. So breaking news right here in Cairns. JOURNALIST: And I suppose you already kind of touched on it, but how important is it to specifically fund Traditional Owner management?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, of course as the Australian Government we fund a wide range of research and other programs around protecting and restoring the Great Barrier Reef. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation all do a terrific job in advancing some of the contemporary science that we know helps us understand the Reef. But I think we haven't done as much as we could in years gone by to really include and harness that traditional knowledge that has been built up, whether it be about tides or the impact of disasters on the Reef that Traditional Owners have had for tens of thousands of years.

We're going to get the best outcome for the Reef by bringing together contemporary science and traditional knowledge, working together and sharing that knowledge, and today's announcement and funding will help achieve that. All good on oceans? Well, today we're seeing Tony Abbott's coalition of chaos back in action.

The Liberal Party and the Federal Coalition are in all sorts when it comes to how they approach One Nation. In the space of the last two or three days we've seen Tony Abbott, the new Federal Liberal President, and Angus Taylor say they want to do preference deals with One Nation. And today, the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party Jane Hume has said that they won't do preference deals with One Nation.

You've got another senior supporter of Angus Taylor, Tony Pasin, yesterday saying not only should they do preference deals with One Nation, but they should come to some sort of agreement about which seats the Liberals stand in, and which seats the One Nation Party stands in. This just shows Tony Abbott's coalition of chaos is back and is simply not fit to govern this country.

We don't know, sitting here now, whether we would have a Liberal or a National or a One Nation person leading some kind of coalition government. How is that any way for a country to be governed? This is why the Albanese Government's stable approach, focusing on the cost of living concerns of Australians, is the right way for Australia to be governed at the moment.

We simply cannot afford to see Tony Abbott's coalition of chaos continue to grow and take this country backwards. JOURNALIST: Just while on One Nation, does this $2 million in donations show how much the community is supporting One Nation? MURRAY WATT: Well, for starters, I mean, none of us know for sure what amount of donations One Nation has received.

There's no evidence that they've done that apart from what they're telling the media. But more broadly, I mean, political parties fundraise all the time. I noticed that One Nation earlier this week was attacking us for asking our supporters for donations and the very next day they are out there asking their supporters for financial support.

I mean, another example where One Nation says a thing and does another. The key point about One Nation is that we understand that many Australians are doing it tough right now and many Australians are frustrated with the system. That's why Labor is trying to change the system.

That's why Labor is trying to put through legislation to reform our taxation system to make it fairer between those who work for a living and those who own homes, shares and other assets and generate income from that. It's One Nation, along with the Liberal Party and the National Party, who are opposing changes to the system to make the tax system fairer. They say they're for change, but they oppose the very change that we're trying to produce that would make life better for working people.

And that's just another example of One Nation saying that they're on the side of working people, but when they get to Canberra, voting with the Liberal Party to make life harder for working people. They vote against wage rises, they vote against cheaper medicines, they vote against more bulk billing, they vote against money for housing, while they claim to be supporting battlers.

It's the Labor Party that is providing that cost of living relief and is working hard so that working people can get ahead. JOURNALIST: I do have a question on the Reef, actually, if that’s allowed. So conservationists have been calling for the continuation of the expansion of marine parks, finishing the job.

However, commercial fishers are still upset about the closure of fisheries, and they say they’re not getting more turf. When are you going to finish this job? When are you going to expand marine parks?

MURRAY WATT: Sure. So we of course have a number of different marine parks around Australia, including in the Coral Sea, and they’re very important ways of protecting the biodiversity that exists in our ocean environment. And that’s an important thing for the fishing industry and other industries, to make sure that we have a healthy ocean that they can continue to use for economic gain.

Now, we have just begun a process that happens every 10 years to review the marine parks around the country. It’s in its early stages. I’ve already met with a whole range of stakeholders, whether it be environment groups, fishing groups, energy groups and others who have got an interest in this.

So we’ll be continuing to do this work over the next few months to settle the boundaries of our marine parks. One of the things that we do want to achieve through this review is achieving our target as a government of highly protecting 30 per cent of Australia’s ocean. What that means is that across all of Australia's ocean, we would be preventing fishing, mining, oil drilling, other extractive activity from happening in 30 per cent of our ocean.

And that matters both for the health of our ocean going forward, but it's also the way we make sure that we have the fish and other species for fishers to be able to access in the future. It's how we can make sure that people in Cairns can go out in their tinny on a weekend with some confidence that they're going to catch a fish as a recreational fisher. So there's strong environmental and economic reasons to do these reviews, and that work will be unfolding over the next few months.

JOURNALIST: Is it concerning that the UK Defence Secretary has resigned because the UK isn't spending enough on defence? And what does this mean for AUKUS? MURRAY WATT: No, look, obviously I've seen that news overnight.

And we know that the UK along with the US are trusted, reliable partners when it comes to AUKUS. All three nations have agreed that the AUKUS pact and the investment that will come with it is the best way to secure our three nations and also a lot of the ocean pathways that our trade relies upon as well. So we're very confident that the enduring nature of that partnership with the UK along with the US remains very strong, and we'll continue to work with both those governments to take this forward.

JOURNALIST: So what would you describe that resignation as? Bad luck? MURRAY WATT: Oh, well, I mean, it's not for me to comment on political affairs that happen in other countries.

What we're focused on is Australia's national interest, and Australia's national interest we believe is best served through the AUKUS pact, ensuring that our defence relationships stay strong. JOURNALIST: I have another local question. The Kuranda Range, you're aware of the windy road up the hill?

MURRAY WATT: JOURNALIST: It's our only real route up to the Tablelands. Local RDA, Australia Tropical North, has looked at other options and it's been decided that that's all we've got. There is an environmental overlay to increase that to a four-lane highway going up the hill.

It's going to cost a lot of money, more than $400 million per kilometre. Is that realistic? Can we have some money for it?

MURRAY WATT: So, Nita no doubt would like to add to this as well as the local representative. From an Environment Minister's perspective, of course, any proposal, whether it be that one or anything else, that is likely to have a significant impact on nationally protected environment matters, would require federal assessment and approval. Now, I don't have enough information in front of me at the moment to know whether a federal assessment or approval would be required, but certainly if it were to have those impacts then it would require a federal assessment and approval.

But Nita might like to add to that further. NITA GREEN: Yeah, thank you, and thanks for the question, Connor. And I think to Murray's point, I think we're a long way off any environmental assessment on the Kuranda Range because the proposals, as you say, that have been put forward over many years, all of the alternatives have not been accepted as a possible alternative.

It is a windy road through wet tropics area. It's difficult to expand that road. And the question really would be about how much an alternative or an expansion proposal would cost.

It is the local RDA's job to investigate a range of proposals over the region over different lifespans, so projects that might be 10, 20 years in the future, and we welcome their work. They do a really important job in bringing stakeholders together, looking at what alternatives might be, but ultimately a decision about funding a road like that would be a decision for the State Government.

And their contribution would be something that we would have to consider before we would be able to think about a way forward. What I would say is that we have provided the State Government in the past over $200 million in safety upgrades for the Kuranda Range. That was off the back of Cyclone Jasper, but badly needed, and I know that that work is still ongoing.

And we thank people, particularly in Mareeba and Cairns for their patience as those roadworks finish. But ultimately, that's been our priority, to get those safety upgrades happening so that we have less breakdowns and less closures of the Kuranda Range. JOURNALIST: Just while you're there, and maybe Murray might add to this as well.

Bree James this morning called for a national fuel dashboard, said it would really help local, regional Queensland tourists and tourism to plan for the future. NITA GREEN: Yeah, look, I mean, this is something that the Prime Minister has been speaking to premiers about through the National Cabinet process. Our focus when it comes to fuel supply and fuel security has been to keep fuel supply coming into the country.

As a federal government, that has been our number one priority. And we've seen how far we've come and the deals we've managed to land to keep diesel particularly coming into regional Queensland, and we've managed to sign deals with particular countries that has brought diesel into Queensland specifically for regional Queensland. That has boosted the certainty and the confidence of people travelling throughout our regional areas.

The information that the State Government refers to is held not by the Federal Government. So we're still working with them through the National Cabinet process about how we can work our way through this supply challenge. But for the Federal Government's point of view, we've been making sure that we're getting supply into regional areas to give people that certainty that they need.

JOURNALIST: I just have one more, please, for Murray. What will BHP strikes mean for the mining sector in exports? MURRAY WATT: Well, our government's view is that all workers have the right to speak up for their interests in an industrial dispute.

We're proud of the fact that Australian workers' wages, generally speaking, allow them to live. We don't want to see a low-wage country. The Liberal Party and One Nation might want to see a low-wage country, but that is not the position of the Labor Party.

Now, we would always encourage unions, workers and employers to negotiate with each other sensibly. The Fair Work Commission is available to assist resolve disputes that can't be resolved by the parties themselves. But there's certainly no doubt that Australian workers have the right to speak up for their interests.

JOURNALIST: Please, I just have a question on the NDIS. The Health Department told the Senate inquiry- the Senate Estimates that there was 240,000 people who will be exited from the NDIS. That's 80,000 more than Mark Butler said in April.

What's your response, and what do you have to say to the 240,000 people who may be in limbo at the moment? MURRAY WATT: Sure. My understanding is that Mark Butler will be doing media today, so probably best to leave that specific question to him.

But what I can say is that the government's reforms to the NDIS are totally about making sure that the NDIS remains sustainable into the future. It has been [indistinct] at a rate that is, frankly, unsustainable. We want to make sure that the NDIS, being a Labor creation in the first place, remains around in 10 years, 20 years, 100 years from now.

We've got to make it sustainable, and we're confident that we can make sure that people get the support that they need. JOURNALIST: And just another question, last one, I promise. A number of stakeholders said they were excluded from giving evidence at the tax reforms inquiry.

What do you say to them, and why did it happen? MURRAY WATT: Well, a couple of things on that. The inquiry that is currently underway into the tax changes the government is proposing is not the first inquiry that's been held on capital gains and other tax matters this year.

There has been a long-running Senate inquiry that was led by the Greens Party and the Coalition looking at the very issues around capital gains tax and other tax arrangements. There has been a lot of opportunity for people to have their say through that earlier inquiry and the current inquiry. We need to get on with this.

There are some people out there who would like to drag out a Senate inquiry for weeks and months. And what that would mean is that Australian workers would not get the tax cuts that they desperately deserve. So we need to get on with this.

That's why we do want to pass this legislation soon. And we're confident that through those two inquiries, people will have had an opportunity to have their say. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture.

We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.