STRETEN, Dr Claire, Research Program Director, Sustainable Coastal Ecosystems and Industries, Australian Institute of Marine Science [14:06] CHAIR: Welcome. I understand that information on parliamentary privilege and the protection of witnesses giving evidence to the committee has been provided to you. I now invite you, Dr Streten, to make a short opening statement. At the conclusion of any remarks, I'll invite members of the committee to ask questions. Dr Streten : I'd like to start by acknowledging the Larrakia people as the traditional custodians of the country on which we meet. I pay my respects to elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people here today. AIMS recognises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as Australia's first scientists, and their enduring leadership in caring for country. AIMS is Australia's tropical marine research agency, operating in northern Australia. We have facilities in Townsville, Perth and Darwin. We have two large research vessels and the National Sea Simulator, a world-leading research aquaria in Townsville. AIMS welcomes this inquiry and its focus on emerging industries in northern Australia. Guided by our Strategy 2040 vision of thriving oceans through trusted science and innovation, we see the region as uniquely positioned at the intersection of relatively undisturbed, globally significant tropical marine ecosystems and emerging marine industries. Our submission highlights three primary priorities: the scientific knowledge required to reduce the uncertainty, support investor confidence and underpin the development of emerging industries that are economically viable and environmentally responsible. This includes science to guide marine spatial planning, impact assessments, decommissioning and long-term monitoring. Secondly, we need strategic support for innovation and infrastructure, including improved marine access, digital ocean capabilities, and observing systems. It is needed to reduce the early-stage barriers to investment in emerging marine industries. Investment in innovative research, including AI enabled monitoring, is also essential to address the logistical challenges of delivering large-scale monitoring programs in remote northern Australia. Together, these capabilities will equip decision-makers with robust, evidence based science. Thirdly—a reoccurring theme—a skilled workforce is needed to support emerging industries. AIMS is helping build this capability through long-term partnerships with the northern Australian universities, JCU and CDU, and a commitment to supporting the development of a First Nations led workforce in remote communities. AIMS looks forward to supporting policy settings that unlock emerging industries while safeguarding northern Australia's marine environment. ACTING CHAIR ( Ms Price ): The chair has just stepped out for a minute, so I will take over the show. Thanks for coming along today and giving us your time. In accepting the focus of your submission and what you've just said about the importance of science to looking at what the emerging industries are going to be, can you give us some idea of what sorts of research projects you are coming across that fit this bill? In terms of the blue economy, for example, what are the new ideas that are coming out about what we use in relation to carbon? Dr Streten : In the blue economy the new area that people are thinking about, which was in the AIMS submission, was around offshore renewable energy and how you can co-locate activities together. If you put in an offshore windfarm, can you design it in a way that improves fish populations in ecology? I guess that's a blue economy example. ACTING CHAIR: In some instances globally, where there are offshore windfarms, and this hasn't always been the case, there has been a lot of criticism of offshore windfarms because of their impact on marine life. Dr Streten : I can't really answer that question. It's not my area of expertise. In Australia we're still assessing the risk associated with offshore renewable energy. At this point in time, we don't know. We have to do that work. ACTING CHAIR: Are there any other great ideas or research programs you're coming across regarding the blue economy? Dr Streten : In northern Australia, not so far—not in the marine estate. I think it's more focused on developing the technologies to explore the marine estate up here in the remote environment. So it's putting drones in the water—unmanned vehicles—to learn what's up here and what's out there, because it's highly unexplored. CHAIR: Deputy Chair, thank you for chairing. Senator Allman-Payne. Senator ALLMAN-PAYNE: Noting in your submission that you talk about the fact that marine science needs to be embedded in offshore resources decommissioning activities and supported through targeted funding, is that currently the case? Is there scope for improvement? What kind of resourcing is needed to make that happen properly? Dr Streten : There is research going into decommissioning. It was interesting talking to the previous person in that space. AIMS has been working with Esso around decommissioning activities and conducting research. There's still a lot that needs to be done to get the evidence base to support one option or the other. It needs significant investment to understand the right options. Senator ALLMAN-PAYNE: From where is AIMS looking to get that investment? Should it be coming from the producers who are needing then to engage in that work, from government funding or from a combination of both? Dr Streten : A combination of both would be the preferred approach. Senator ALLMAN-PAYNE: You talk about upskilling local First Nations people and promoting and elevating Indigenous leadership. In particular, in your submission you talk about the need to expand the Northern Australian Marine Monitoring Alliance Indigenous workforce. Could you tell us the current size of that workforce and what AIMS envisages as the capacity for expansion in relation to that? Dr Streten : I would have to take on notice the question about how many people are involved in the Northern Australian Marine Monitoring Alliance, NAMMA. It does work with three groups—the group in the Kimberley, the Bardi Jawi; the Anindilyakwa, on Groote; and then in the Torres Strait. They're the three groups that we work with as a demonstration. We're also working with the Thamarrurr rangers in Wadeye and the Djelk rangers in Maningrida. They're the locations it's currently operating at. Senator ALLMAN-PAYNE: Are they trials? Dr Streten : Yes, they are trials. Some of it is funded by the AIMS appropriation budget. The other part is funded by Parks Australia's contribution to build capacity to monitor in the marine parks up here as well. At the moment, that's what we can scale at. We would like for it to increase across the north, because it's an untapped resource. These people live in these communities and want to know what's happening in their sea country. AIMS is just going in and demonstrating the Western monitoring methods that we use so they can survey fish populations or benthic communities in those areas and understand how things are changing in their own sea country. Senator ALLMAN-PAYNE: What is the time period for those trials? Are they all running concurrently? Have some started before others? Dr Streten : Some started before others. Some have been running, I think, for five years. The Torres Strait is an emerging partnership that AIMS has formed. We would like to continue them forever. Senator ALLMAN-PAYNE: Would you say you've reached the point now where effectively the trials are done and what you're really looking for now is investment into a program that's proven itself and really should continue? Dr Streten : Yes. The communities want to stay involved and they want to continue the partnership. AIMS would like to continue to look for funding for that to support them. Senator ALLMAN-PAYNE: In terms of the ranger program and the Indigenous protected area expansion, your submission talks about establishing more Indigenous protected areas over sea country and extending Indigenous ranger programs to include marine biosecurity, marine restoration programs, carbon monitoring and decommissioning activities, as we spoke about before. It also talks about the need for adequate resourcing. Is there currently a resourcing gap in relation to that area of work? Dr Streten : There's always a gap. There's always more you could do. The rangers are funded to do a certain amount of activities, but they would like to increase their scope. Additional funding is required to increase the scope of what they can cover currently. Senator ALLMAN-PAYNE: If we were looking at employment and industry opportunities, it would seem that this is a really great place where there are runs on the board, things are working and more government investment would lead to more good outcomes? Dr Streten : Yes. CHAIR: I know the Bardi-Jawi people in the peninsula. It's fantastic. Senator ALLMAN-PAYNE: I've never been there. CHAIR: You have to go up there. Cygnet Bay is such a beautiful place. It is paradise. You can buy pearl while you're there! Are the Bardi-Jawi group the ranger group? Dr Streten : Yes, it is the ranger group. CHAIR: A lot of the work that's being done is actually already being done by the ranger groups? Dr Streten : Yes. CHAIR: You'd like more rangers? I was the environment minister who expanded the ranger groups, so I have a particular interest in the ranger groups. I'm very happy about that. Is your proposition for more ranger groups doing more of this work and more funding to help the existing ranger groups? Dr Streten : Yes, it is. To increase their capacity to monitor new things like biosecurity and maybe threatened species and things like that. To increase the capacity of the ones that are already in the program, but others as well. CHAIR: I would agree with you 100 per cent, because what we see, whether they're on the sea or thousands of kilometres inland, is this opportunity to upskill people who are included in the ranger program. What you're talking about looks like a great chance to give people another opportunity. Senator McDonald. Senator McDONALD: I want to ask you about decommissioning of whether it be turbines or gas infrastructure. You mentioned the possibility for more blue economy ocean tourism and whatnot. I'm really interested in that because, once something has become established in the environment, it becomes a bit of a habitat for fish, coral and so on. When we think about decommissioning, instead of thinking about removing everything in entirety, such as the artificial coral reefs that we manufacture, can we better utilise existing infrastructure for new habitats? Dr Streten : That's exactly the type of research that AIMS is currently doing in the decommissioning space. We're looking at the habitat that has been formed on those structures over a long period of time and the fish they support. That would be one of the areas in which we think there needs to be further research to understand the ecological value that those structures that have been in for such a long time have in terms of the local ecosystem. Senator McDONALD: My observation is that it must be a particularly harsh thing for animals that have set up homes on something where then you say: 'Good news! We're moving it.' I take it that you're doing that research on existing facilities? Dr Streten : Yes. Senator McDONALD: Given I'm based in Townsville and I see the work and the research that happens there, I'm a big fan of AIMS. I'm always interested in this, because research dollars in Australia are hard to come by. I think AIMS has done a great job of utilising private money as well as public money, but you're not always recognised for being able to do that. How are you being funded for this research? Is it private money? Can we celebrate that? Dr Streten : Decommissioning research? Senator McDONALD: Yes. Dr Streten : It's funded by industry. Senator McDONALD: That's okay, isn't it? I'm always amazed when there's some sort of criticism; we would want to use science dollars, whoever pays for it. Some science dollars are good and some science dollars are bad? I don't know. Dr Streten : We need to know what's happening. If someone is going to fund it, we need to answer the questions. Senator McDONALD: Yes. It was my observation when I've been out to AIMS that the research project doesn't seem to care where the dollars come from, just so long as the research is being carried out. As a committee, we haven't been to AIMS, have we, Chair? CHAIR: No. Senator McDONALD: We should go and visit. Dr Streten : You need to see the sea simulator. Senator McDONALD: Yes, the research you're doing there is fantastic. Mr GOSLING: Where is that simulator? Dr Streten : Townsville. It's the main headquarters. Mr GOSLING: So it's in Townsville? Senator McDONALD: It is. It's one of the few world-leading things that we do in Australia. Dr Streten : We love hosting visitors. Everyone is welcome to come visit. CHAIR: We might do that. We'll come to her part of the world. She's coming to mine, so I'll have to go there. Are there any other questions? Mr GOSLING: Is Bardi-Jawi a ranger group in the Kimberley? Dr Streten : Yes, it is. Mr GOSLING: Whereabouts? CHAIR: North of Broome. Mr GOSLING: One Arm Point? Is it north of that? Dr Streten : No, not quite. Mr GOSLING: Somewhere north of Broome? There is a group with the Anindilyakwa rangers. Whereabouts is the group in the Torres Strait? Dr Streten : I would have to check. Mr GOSLING: You're doing some work with Maningrida and Wadeye? Dr Streten : Yes. Mr GOSLING: It just so happens that, soon, our committee is going to the Torres Strait. In terms of workforce development and leadership in the marine industries, does AIMS provide any training? Dr Streten : We do. We provide marine monitoring training to the ranger groups. Hopefully through upskilling people, they will be able to take a leadership role in marine monitoring in their community or with industry if they come into the community. Mr GOSLING: What does that mean for us here in the Territory if you're in old Nauru— Dr Streten : Yes, we're still in Nauru. Mr GOSLING: Is training being provided? Dr Streten : Not in Darwin. We actually travel to the communities and it's hands-on. For the ranger training, we go to the ranger station. We train them for a day. Then we go out in the boat for three or four days and we actually collect data on country so that they can use the data that we collect. We've now been running that for five years with the Thamarrurr rangers at Wadeye. Each year, we go out there and run the training on how to survey benthic communities—coral, sponges and seagrass—and also fish populations. Everybody likes fishing in the Territory. We do fish surveys as well with the groups. We repeat that every year in terms of trying to upskill the rangers over an extended period. Mr GOSLING: Is that because the Larrakia rangers here already get that training from somewhere else? Dr Streten : They have done that training in the past. We're just limited by the AIMS staff capacity in Darwin. There's only a small group here. We've worked with the other groups because we're introduced by industry partners to those ranger groups. They identified that they wanted to work with us, so that's why we partnered with them and not with Larrakia. Mr GOSLING: We're going to find out more about it out in the Tiwis, but aquaculture is a significant potential emerging industry that enables people to make best use of sea country for economic development. Obviously, for that to be done in an environmentally sustainable way is in everyone's interests. Is it part of AIMS' role to be teaching about this, whether it be the prawns—back in the news again—or the oysters project? Dr Streten : There's the blacklip oyster that Darwin Aquaculture Centre runs out of the Tiwis and quite a few communities. CHAIR: And there is the Warruwi community. Mr GOSLING: Who is doing the workforce training for those projects? Is that AIMS or is that done in another way? Dr Streten : For the blacklip oyster, Darwin Aquaculture Centre takes the lead on that. AIMS isn't involved in that venture. We can support in different ways. We have oceanographic capability, which means we can deploy temperature loggers, and current measurers et cetera. That's the type of capability we would bring to those aquaculture ventures at this point in time. We actually put in a temperature logger at Wadeye next to the oyster lease so they could have a look at the temperature. We trained the rangers to deploy the temperature loggers. It's not actually the animal component of aquaculture necessarily. AIMS can support in other ways to understand, say, if they lose the oysters, is it because of a temperature spike or something like that in the environment. Taking away the NT lens—AIMS is based in the NT—in Queensland there's the coral restoration program, the RRAP program, and that's a form of aquaculture. People don't recognise that it is, but that's coral aquaculture conservation. That's an emerging area of aquaculture where AIMS is working with traditional owner and ranger groups in Queensland for them to do the restoration of reef areas. That hasn't been looked at in the NT, but that is where we're active in aquaculture. Mr GOSLING: When it comes to the blue economy and to the Pacific family, I know that we do a lot of work with countries in the Pacific. Have we extended that into Timor-Leste, because obviously they're quite close to us? I don't know whether there are any current programs we can leverage, but I recently visited there, and developing their blue economy is very important to the Timor-Leste government. Are we doing anything with them or is it just CDU working with them? Dr Streten : It's just CDU at this point in time, but AIMS is happy to work with Timor-Leste as well. We just don't have the partnerships at this point in time. Mr GOSLING: I think there's a lot of mutual benefit for both us in northern Australia and them from us working together. CHAIR: In terms of jobs, I might use this opportunity to invite Renee Long, the CEO of Batchelor Institute. In terms of training and jobs, maybe that could be something that we could talk to Ms Long about. Before I invite Renee up, with drone technology and the work that's done, is AIMS doing any of that type of work and investigation with those ranger groups, both the Djelk rangers in Maningrida and in Wadeye? There are both male and female rangers there and they're using drone technology more and more, particularly in terms of the protection of those reefs. Is that something that AIMS does or is it that CSIRO and other institutions? Dr Streten : AIMS has capability in that space. The AIMS and CDU Alliance has just funded a project to actually develop drone methods for the ranger groups to survey coral reefs and seagrass. That's a project that's underway. We can roll it out. CHAIR: You were talking about biosecurity. In terms of ghost nets and issues with ghost nets, has AIMS done any work there? Dr Streten : No, we don't. CHAIR: Are there any other questions? Senator McDONALD: Can I ask a data question, please. In your submission there's a statement that there has been a 19 per cent growth in like-for-like terms compared with two years ago, supporting a 52 per cent increase in full-time equivalent jobs to 712,000 jobs. That sounds like a lot of jobs. What was that data based on? Dr Streten : That's a statement out of the AIMS Marine Index. I would have to take that question on notice. Senator McDONALD: Would you mind? I'd be really fascinated, because that is a fantastic number. I assume it's Australia-wide? Dr Streten : It will be. Senator McDONALD: I assume it's onshore and offshore? Dr Streten : No, for the blue economy—both components. It will be the onshore jobs that support the blue economy as well as the offshore jobs. Senator McDONALD: Sorry, that's what I meant to say. If you wouldn't mind just taking on notice a breakup of jobs by what sector and perhaps by what region? Of course, we're more interested in the Northern Australian ones, but it would be good to understand where that number comes from. Dr Streten : I'm happy to send a copy of the AIMS Marine Index to you, because it's in there as well. Senator McDONALD: So that may not have that information in it? I'll just have to dig a bit further. Out of interest, a few years ago a document modelled the number of jobs that were relevant to the Great Barrier Reef. Because I'm a nerd in these things, I went back and looked for the source data. They had used all of the flights going into anywhere within the Great Barrier Reef catchment, which also included Moranbah and all the coalmining towns; those were included as supporting Great Barrier Reef jobs. I thought, 'That's possibly not entirely accurate.' I'm just interested in where numbers come from. CHAIR: We have no further questions. Thank you, Dr Streten, for your evidence today. The committee has agreed that any responses to questions on notice should be provided within two weeks of you receiving a copy of the Hansard record..