Dr WOODRUFF (Franklin – Leader of the Greens) – Honourable Speaker, I think the other Greens have made a very comprehensive case. I will just add the previous State of Environment Report 2009. Maybe Ms Finlay has not read it and is not aware of it. One of the sections that report deals with is people and places. It deals with population and settlement patterns, energy use, waste, Aboriginal heritage. It deals with the impacts on communities. That is why it matters to understand what the state of our environment is, because we are all impacted. It is not something happening out there. It is an assessment of water quality. It is an assessment of water health, groundwater, geodiversity, and solar diversity.
How can agricultural communities – the ones which Ms Finlay is seeking to represent ‑ understand the impacts for the future if they do not understand what the state of the soil environment is and if they do not know what the state of the water catchments are in Tasmania. We have had absolute silence for 10 years from this government – 10 years. We know nothing about the state of our river systems. That is exactly why that stuff needs to be in there. These are the facts that a State of the Environment Report needs to deal with.
It is so far beyond a kind of political game that you are making this out to be. It is so far not that. It is a genuine deep desire from Tasmanians to understand what the ship of Tasmania is that we are living on, and how it is serving us into the future.
