Ms O’CONNOR (Clark – Leader of the Greens) – Mr Speaker, I move –
That the House take note of the following matter: swift parrot.
Mr Speaker, the beautiful bird, Lathamus discolor, extraordinary, exquisite and once abundant on this island. It is the fastest bird on earth. It breeds only in Tasmania and we know that there are an estimated less than 1000 birds left. That is why it is listed as critically endangered under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and it is on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List.
It is one of just three migratory parrots in the world, two are Tasmanian resident. It has the longest-known migration of any parrot. They fly half the width of the continent two times a year. Each year from Tasmania in March and April they fly across Bass Strait and over-winter in south-east Australia where they are also rapidly losing habitat. They arrive back here each year in August and September to breed.
Last year they arrived in large numbers relative to their population in the Eastern Tiers. There is a coupe there which environmentalists have been seeking to defend, which the Greens visited last year – Coupe SHO 50B. It is an extremely significant habitat coupe for this beautiful bird. That coupe is in this beautiful book by Rob Blakers. We can see that forest in this gorgeous book. Most of the parrots in this book, which Mr Ellis has a copy of, were photographed in those Eastern Tiers.
Knowing that last year flocks of up to 30 birds were observed at this site on multiple occasions, Forestry Tasmania is inside SHO 50B logging the absolute guts out of it. This is standard operating procedure for Forestry Tasmania. It goes into the heart of an important forest and logs the guts out of it, therefore, compromising it.
Despite Mr Ellis’s false claims of the Government being serious about ensuring the survival of this bird, between 1997 and 2016, 23 per cent of the surviving old growth forests in the southern forests, prime breeding and foraging habitat for the swift parrot, was logged. It is deliberate, reckless vandalism, like Barbarians in the cathedral. It is absolutely wicked.
We and we do not understand how first of all minister Ellis and then minister Jaensch can stand up in this place and say with a straight face that this Government is serious about ensuring the survival of an animal which has such a slender life line to the future. Every action of this Government in relation to that bird is driving it closer to extinction. This would be such a tragedy.
I do not know how many members in this place know very much about the swift parrot. It is such a beautiful little bird. It is a bird over which we have a responsibility. That is why we asked the Minister for Resources today whether he would step in and pull in his rogue GBE, which has wantonly, recklessly, gone into an area of forest which has been identified and has a scientific foundation to that identification as key swift parrot habitat. As I said, last year it was one of the most important sites and forests on this island for the swift parrots when they return in August and September.
The minister talked about the Public Authority Management Agreement, which was notionally established to protect some swift parrot habitat. We first had the lie exposed by the Greens a couple of GBE Estimates ago that the Palmer ensured 10 000 hectares was not logged. We understand it is now only 9300 hectares but 69 per cent of the forests that are in the Public Authority Management Agreement, which is currently in abeyance and under review, was already excluded from logging. So that document protects just 2900 hectares for the swift parrots, proposing that just 2900 hectares that was going to be logged not be logged.
There is something bordering on criminal about having the tools and the capacity to save a species from extinction and choosing not to do so. There is something deeply immoral about that.
Mr Speaker, in the short amount of time I have left, I want to make a plea to the two ministers who are sitting in this Chamber who have within their power the capacity to do something really meaningful to ensure the survival of this extraordinary bird.
I have no doubt we will hear from minister Jaensch shortly about plans, processes and reviews and that sort of thing, but what we need is tangible action that moves us to a place that ends the logging of swift parrot habitat and foraging areas.
Most critically, what we need right now is action from the Minister for Resources to get Forestry Tasmania out of the Eastern Tiers and those forests, where we know last year the swift parrots travelled halfway across the continent to reach, to breed and to feed. It would be an utter tragedy if a minister who had the power to stop this travesty from happening did not do it. Why else do you have ministerial power if not to use it for good when it is needed? Minister Ellis can save this bird.
