Entsch’s big Reef role
PRIME Minister Scott Morrison was in for a surprise when he called Warren Entsch to congratulate him on his election win – but it resulted in a promotion.
The Leichhardt MP had already announced a solo mission to get a national policy on ridding the oceans of plastic, but he was yet to get clearance from the boss.
“I said, well guess what mate, I’ve just put you in for something else – it’s my intention to do this,” Mr Entsch said.
“He thought it was a brilliant idea.”
Less than a week later and Mr Entsch was appointed special envoy to the Great Barrier Reef – a quasi-Cabinet position that grants him extra resources and flexibility to go after his goal.
“I said I don’t want a (ministerial) job, I’m only here for three years,” he said.
“But I’ve got to move quickly on this.”
The new role is a sign of the Prime Minister’s gratitude for Mr Entsch backing him at the Liberal Party’s last leadership spill and since, but it also carries some weight.
It means Mr Entsch will be the government’s national spokesman for the Great Barrier Reef and he will work alongside Environment Minister Sussan Ley and her assistant minister, Trevor Evans.
Mr Morrison made special mention of his envoy’s plastic crusade when announcing his new Cabinet line-up.
“Warren has a passion across a whole range of issues in relation to the Reef ... and he has a particular passion about oceans policy and the impact of plastics on our oceans,” he noted.
Mr Entsch said his first order of business would be to set up a Parliamentary Friendship Group for the Great Barrier Reef – replicating the nonpartisan group he set up in 2010 when trying to get consensus on marriage equality.
He said he had been inspired by 11-year-old plastic straws crusader Molly Speer and getting funds for a white picket fence created from millions of recycled plastic bottles to be erected around an AFL field in Port Douglas.
“We don’t need to save the Great Barrier Reef, we need to continue to manage it – and we will,” Mr Entsch said.
“We are the best managers in the world.
“Now we need to do the same with plastics.”