Ms BADGER (Lyons) – Thank you, honourable Deputy Speaker. I want to say from the outset: thank you to biosecurity, which is part of NRE, but also NRE more broadly, Parks, the Health department as well and everyone who has been a part of this response, particularly since we have seen birds testing positive to bird flu across the state and, indeed, deceased birds. They are doing it on a shoestring budget that is getting a lot smaller. They’re doing an enormous amount of work on this program, but there are also many other threats as well that I’m going to touch on in the biosecurity space in particular. That work is not becoming any less urgent or important either. I also want to thank everyone who was part of the briefing yesterday. I hope we’re going to see these regular briefings continue down the line, even if it’s the case that not everybody can make it every lunchtime to these briefings. Having those packs available to members so we can see what the government’s response is going to be and accurately respond to a growing number of concerned constituents so that they also understand what the government is doing and what the plans are going to be moving forward is very helpful.
In addition, I want to say an enormous thank you to the vet centres, the wildlife carers, the likes of Bonorong, who are really at the forefront of this. In particular, I know that the government is currently looking at outreach in terms of which of those centres is willing to accept sick or deceased birds for disposal, but all of this is being done at their cost, and particularly wildlife centres are already under the pump and dealing with the crisis of wildlife being killed on our roads as well. They have a number of sick animals going through there already, and now they’re dealing with this on top of that. We really need to see the state and federal governments come to the party and ensure that there is funding for these centres as well. It is fantastic to hear that the government is looking at marine netting or gill netting and no‑go zones, particularly to protect the little penguins that we know so many Tasmanians are fond of. They really are a quintessential part of our coastal communities, even if they are particularly noisy.
This is also very important for areas such as Bicheno, because that’s quite a birding hot spot. It’s obviously got a very important penguin colony, but out on Governor Island there is also an amazing tern colony and we know that terns are particularly susceptible to bird flu and, indeed, a large percentage of the deaths we have already seen in Tasmania are of terns, so looking at measures we can do for certain populations like that is also really important. When we’re talking about that penguin colony in particular, this is, of course, one that was under threat in the 2024-25 summer when there was an extreme marine heatwave quite localised off the Bicheno area. We saw that colony in peak summer breeding time move far out to sea so they could get food. At that time the Greens were calling for the penguin advisory group that had been set up in 2021-22 to be reestablished so that we could get a picture of what was happening. We should have that ongoing. Let’s research what that marine heatwave – which we’re only going to see more of – is going to mean for our little penguin colonies right around Tasmania.
It should have been reestablished then because now we’re hearing we’re going to use the lessons learnt from the penguin advisory group back in 2021-22, when it was still up, to help our response to bird flu, but we’ve missed that critical period of beginning new observations for the changes that are occurring within our penguin colonies across Tasmania. It’s simply not good enough. We’re hearing about enhanced cat trapping, which is absolutely welcome. That’s been a known threat to our penguin colonies for quite some time. Indeed, we’re still awaiting the 2024‑29 cat management plan. You’ve got to wonder when critical plans like that, which are about an ongoing threat to our bird species, aren’t coming forward; is that simply because of the resourcing we’re seeing cut and gutted out of our departments that are now trying to also deal with bird flu?
We’ve got other responses coming forward that need biosecurity investment and resources, such as the varroa mite in our bees. We have to make sure that this department is fully funded to be able to deal with that, being an enormous threat growing at the same pace that we’re going to be seeing bird flu, and who knows what other diseases are going to come forward? If there’s one thing that’s clear, it’s that we note that in the changing climate we are going to be seeing more diseases coming into Tasmania that are going to be infecting our animal population. COVID showed what it could do to the human population as well. We have to ensure that we’ve got the funding, the programs and the resources in place to protect everything that makes Tasmania so special.
