Australian Greens

Principles

The Australian Greens believe that:

1. A cooperative national and international approach to the management of our marine environment is required to deliver clean and healthy oceans, integrated ecosystems and sustainable coastal communities.
2. The application of the precautionary principle is fundamental to sustainable management of marine, coastal and estuarine ecosystems.
3. Fisheries must be managed as a part of a broader ecosystem which meets the needs of natural predators as well as humans.
4. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ rights to sea country must be recognised as well as the right to sustainably access customary fishing grounds.
5. The health of Australia’s marine, estuarine, and coastal environment is dependent on land and waste management that recognises the interconnectedness of terrestrial and marine ecosystems.
6. Ecosystems-based management is the most sustainable and appropriate model for the management of Australia’s marine territories.
7. The health of Australia’s fishing industries is dependent on adequate conservation and sustainable management measures that ensure the replenishment of fishing stocks.
8. Sea level rise, ocean warming, acidification, and increased severity and frequency of storms as a result of climate change pose grave threats to marine and coastal ecosystems.
9. Australia has a role in protecting the world's oceans including advocating for sustainable fishery practices on the High Seas.

Aims

The Australian Greens want:

10. Statutory ecosystems-based bio-regional marine planning that enables the full range of uses and impacts to be identified and managed, and allocates resources across and within marine industry sectors.
11. The protection and conservation of key target and endangered marine species and elimination of fishery by-catch and habitat damage from both commercial and recreational fishing and other marine activities.
12. A strengthened cooperative national approach to the identification, containment and eradication of introduced marine pests.
13. The protection and conservation of marine mammals and protection of their habitat.
14. A global ban on commercial and so-called scientific take or other killing of all whales and other cetaceans, except for sustainable indigenous subsistence hunting, and a ban on the sale of whale meat and by-products.
15. The inclusion in the Indigenous Protected Areas Program of marine based proclamations and management programs for using traditional marine law and customary tenure systems for ecologically sustainable marine management.
16. Elimination of sources of marine pollution and hazards, including harmful and toxic waste dumping.
17. Stronger regulation of shipping and marine installations in Australian waters including the phasing out of single skinned tankers.
18. Restrictions on the use of seismic devices, mining techniques and other technologies, including the testing of military and naval explosive devices in the oceans, that cause ecological harm, particularly to marine mammals.
19. Payment by resource companies of the full costs of clean-up and monitoring of any marine and coastal damage resulting from their activities.
20. Adequate public funding for research to inform protection, conservation and responsible management of Australian marine and coastal environments.
21. The introduction of national standards for the ecological health of all marine and coastal bio-regions.