The Environment and Communications Reference Committee will be holding a hearing in Adelaide TOMORROW as part of its inquiry, established by Greens Senator for South Australia Robert Simms, into oil or gas production in the Great Australian Bight.

Greens Senator for Tasmania and Chair of the Senate Select Committee into the Scrutiny of Government Budget Measures, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, will use tomorrow’s hearing into CSIRO cuts to get to the bottom of the supposed final job loss numbers announced today.

Senator Whish-Wilson said, “Today’s announcement sounds like the Government has merely softened the blow for devastating job losses across the climate and environmental science functions within the CSIRO. The majority of the planned job losses will still go ahead.

With increasing evidence that coral bleaching is occurring off the coast of the Kimberley Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert is calling on the Government to urgently reinstate marine parks.

“I have been worried for some time that coral bleaching would also be occurring off the coast of WA and now unfortunately we are starting to see the evidence of this bleaching. I’m deeply concerned that we might have bleaching similar to the scale of that occurring on the Great Barrier Reef”, Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said today.

Today the Senate Environment and Communications Committee has released a landmark report into the causes and impacts of marine plastic pollution in our waterways and oceans.

Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, who initiated the Inquiry, said, “Today, we have seen Senators from Labor, the Liberals and the Greens standing together calling for urgent and immediate action on marine plastic pollution.

Greens Senator for South Australia Robert Simms says shareholders should raise concerns with BP over its environmentally risky plan to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight.

BP is holding its Annual General Meeting today in London. A Climate Analytics report also released today stated an oil spill would be "devastating for South Australia's $442 million fishing industry and its tourism industries in coastal regions, worth more than $1 billion and decimate the rich and many endangered creatures of this ocean".

The Australian Greens welcome news the co-founder and project manager for ‘Shark Spotters’, a successful non-lethal shark mitigation program from Cape Town, has been crowdfunded to visit Australia in early March.

“It is disappointing that the Government and the ALP have moved to validate offshore petroleum titles in marine parks that were deemed invalid”, said Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert.

“Due to an ‘administrative oversight’ between 2008 and 2015 leases were not subject to environmental approval process (as they should be) so were deemed invalid. The Bill was rushed through the Parliament to fix the error and has passed into legislation today.

The Australian Greens welcome Senate support for their inquiry into proposed drilling off the Great Australian Bight.

"BP must be held to account for its shocking environmental record and poor community consultation. BP's initial submission to drill for oil off the Great Australian Bight was turned down by the regulator, NOPSEMA and it is high time this issue was put under the microscope," Greens Senator for South Australia Robert Simms said.

Australia has signed on to expand the list of shark species currently protected in a Sharks Memorandum of Understanding under the Convention of Migratory Species (CMS) but continues to step away from legally binding international measures that would enforce protection of those species, Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said today.

“Signatories to CMS are meeting this week in Costa Rica to discuss the expanded list of shark species.

Greens Senator for Tasmania, and spokesperson for Antarctic issues, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, supports the comments by the University of Tasmania Vice Chancellor Peter Rathjen that Tasmania’s hard-won world-leading competitive advantage in climate and Antarctic science should not be given up lightly.

Senator Whish-Wilson said, “Peter Rathjen is right. Tasmania has worked hard to develop a global reputation in climate and Antarctic science and once you have earned this reputation you don’t just throw it away.