Mr BAYLEY question to MINISTER for the ENVIRONMENT, Ms OGILVIE
Speaker, I share your pain.
The State of the Environment report was tabled 10 weeks ago. It painted a devastating picture of decline across Tasmania that must be stopped. This week, independent auditors found that the Tasmanian Planning Commission and the report’s author’s work was robust and thorough. So far, there has been deathly silence from the government on a response. Minister, your predecessor was noncommittal and apathetic. As the new Environment minister, will you be the change that is needed? Will you use your new position to implement the State of the Environment report recommendations in full and push your colleague, Mr Ellis, to publish a response to this report before parliament adjourns this year?
The SPEAKER – I will call the Minister for the Environment and remind people that parliament ends tomorrow for the year, which makes today the penultimate day for Mr Casimaty.
ANSWER
Honourable Speaker, it is nice to get an environment question from the Greens; thank you so much. Our government’s 2030 Strong Plan for Tasmania’s Future outlines our commitment to protecting our state’s much-loved environment. Our natural environment is very important and on this side we recognise there is so much to be proud of here in Tasmania. We have just over 50 per cent of our land under reserves and we have one of the world’s largest temperate wilderness areas, covering almost a quarter of Tasmania, more than 1.6 million hectares. We were the first Australian jurisdiction to achieve net zero emissions, which has been maintained for the last nine years. These achievements should not be dismissed. They need to be celebrated.
The State of the Environment report is an important means of documenting baseline data, trends and risks across our state. The report makes 16 recommendations across a range of areas, including managing our waterways, protecting threatened species, fire management and biosecurity and invasive species. Our government recognises that this is a significant body of work and I think that is recognised around this Chamber as well. We are committed to sustainable management of our environment whilst also continuing to pursue economic development opportunities, ensuring Tasmania remains the best place to live, work, raise a family and enjoy our beautiful state.
I have said and am on the record that we are currently reviewing the report. I have had a series of meetings with stakeholders and I am sure some of those conversations have filtered back to the Greens, happily. The report is broad ranging in scope, significant in length and highly technical in nature. It touches on many areas of government, industry and community responsibility. That is why we are taking it very seriously. It is critically important that it is properly considered. Advice is being sought and a measured and consolidated response to the report will be delivered. We have said we will do this before the end of the year, before Christmas, and we are working on that. I am very happy to be in dialogue with everybody in Tasmania who loves our environment as much as we do. We take the report seriously and you will get that response.
Dr Woodruff – So not before parliament rises?
SUPLEMENTARY QUESTION
The SPEAKER – I will hear the supplementary and remind the Leader of the Greens to not interject.
Mr BAYLEY – It is welcome to hear that there will be a response before the end of the year but the question was about whether it would be done by the end of the parliamentary year, so by tomorrow. Is there anything that can be done by the end of tomorrow?
The SPEAKER – I will not allow the supplementary. It may not have been the answer you wanted but she did answer the question about when it will be delivered.
