The Greens are pushing to save the iconic bay of the Great Australian Bight from oil and gas drilling by adding it to the World Heritage List.
The party will introduce federal and state laws to secure protection status to safeguard the unique marine environment from pollution.
“The Great Australian Bight is a precious part of South Australia and it should be protected from oil drilling and pollution forever,” Greens spokesperson for the environment, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, said on Sunday.
“Both the federal and state governments have been too slow in protecting the area.”
The senator says the bay has “global significance” due to the array of marine life inhabiting it, including whale species and sea lions.
“Eighty-five percent of the species that live in the bight are found nowhere else on earth,” she said.
Research in November 2019 suggested most South Australians want the Great Australian Bight on the World Heritage List.
The Australia Institute poll of more than 500 people found 84 percent support world heritage protection, up from 77 percent in March.
The survey also showed that 66 percent believe the bight would be a more productive asset for SA as a marine park than as an oil field.
The decision to lobby for World Heritage protection has been announced a week before a by-election in Black, caused by resignation of disgraced former Liberal Leader David Speirs.
Speirs stepped down as SA party leader in August, citing exhaustion from fending off ongoing leadership speculation.
Footage purportedly showing him snorting a white powder later emerged and he has since been charged with supplying drugs, prompting him to quit parliament.
Voters will head to the polls on Saturday.
