Mr BAYLEY (Clark) – Honourable Speaker, I move:
That the House takes note of the following Matter: war on wildlife.
I rise today to talk about our matter of public importance, which is the war on wildlife. When we Greens say, ‘The war on wildlife’, we are not necessarily talking about deliberate, cruel and systematic actions by this government to take out wildlife, we are talking about a war waged on wildlife that is based around apathy, indifference, regulatory capture, industry power and its hold on this government, and the power it wields to ensure this government takes no action regarding protection of our wildlife. It is a war waged by greed, speed and a fundamental lack of care.
There is no greater symbol of the indifference of this government than the State of the Environment report 2024. This is a report that the government had to be brought kicking and screaming into commissioning, despite the fact that there are five‑yearly statutory timeframes for this report to be delivered. This government missed two of those statutory reporting periods. This 2024 report was the first one since 2009. Fifteen years is a shameful statistic.
When we finally got it, it shows that there are some serious concerns for our environment. Not all of these pertain to wildlife itself. Not all of these indicators are wildlife, but our environment is the fundamental habitat and home of our wildlife. Of all of the indicators, 16 of the 29 are in decline, which is incredibly important. It has a raft of important recommendations that we urge and implore the government to take up and to make sure they make a solid commitment to implement. It is way overdue and paints a dire picture.
The Budget has $2 million for threatened species. With 680 threatened species that is only $3000 per threatened species. This is not going to go anywhere near dealing with the problem. We know a lot of that money goes to captive breeding programs for the Maugean skate. It is very good work by scientists and we commend them on that work, but this is work that should not have to happen in the first place, because we should have a clean harbour for that species to thrive in. It is also work that is potentially in vain because we do not have a viable wild habitat to release those captive bred species into.
Regarding indifference and regulatory capture, nothing has spoken more loudly over decades than the forest practices system, code and authority. The swift parrot is the case in point. The Forest Practices Code has long been criticised as being self‑regulated, ineffective and doing nothing to actually protect species. There have been reviews in the past that recommended updating the biodiversity provisions of the code ‑ recommendations that have gone completely unanswered. The State of the Environment report explicitly identifies forestry as a pressure in eight of the 29 indicators, including soil stability, land use intensification, native vegetation fragmentation, threatened fauna, terrestrial native birds, water quality, riparian zones and particulate matter.
When it comes to terrestrial native birds, the swift parrot is emblematic of the problem. We had protesters in an active logging coupe on Monday who were protesting and stopping the logging in that coupe while swift parrots were literally flying around their heads. The State of the Environment report identifies forestry pressure and highlights the need for an expanded reserve estate, and in fact the Swift Parrot Management Plan itself identifies logging as a pressure and says that the loss of potential breeding habit in Tasmania by clearance for conversion to agriculture, native forest logging and intensive native forest silviculture practices continues to reduce the amount of swift parrot nesting and foraging habitat. This plan makes a recommendation that the government look at protecting habitat on private land.
We saw a few weeks ago the government point to the private sector and the work they are doing protecting 260 hectares of swift parrot habitat, but it is only this government and the minister who can protect habitat on public land.
I want to finish talking about wildlife by saying that not everyone is waging a war. Roadkill is a significant issue and we know that there are plenty of people that care: wildlife carers, Bonorong, Wires and people like Lara Van Raay and Ruth Waterhouse who are doing great work to highlight roadkill as an issue and are trying to urge further action from this government.
Time expired.
