Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

and need to be moved, but the numbers in Queensland and New South Wales are becoming seriously depleted. Many people say that this is because of a loss of habitat, and that is certainly a factor. Farmers tend to get the blame for that, although I think that is unfair because a lot of the habitat is, in fact, destroyed for urban development. The areas where koalas live are also the areas where people like to live and so the koalas’ territory is often invaded for urban development. But it is possible, as I mentioned from my own personal example, for koalas and urban populations to cohabit. There are risks—for example, motor vehicles on the road. Also, domestic dogs can attack koalas. Even seemingly pleasant little pets, if they have a koala crossing their yard, will see it as invading their territory. While koalas carry a nasty scratch, a dog will often win the fight.

There are issues, but the biggest concern affecting the New South Wales and Queensland koala population is the onset of a range of new diseases which threaten the entire population. There are some colonies where there are few breeding animals left, and science does not really understand these diseases. There is a need to do a lot more research on trying to find a way to address the diseases and establish and preserve disease-free colonies so that the populations of koalas in Queensland and New South Wales can be at sustainable levels.

Ms Carolyn Beaton, who has been a koala advocate for many years, has been advocating the establishment of a sanctuary in the Noosa area for koalas. The iconic Noosa National Park is thought to have as few as 10 or a dozen koalas left. She would like to see that population enhanced or in fact see new sanctuaries established in the region to make sure that the Sunshine Coast koala population is maintained and preserved. She has sought funding for a Noosa koala sanctuary education and research centre. She has the cooperation of a number of the other wildlife establishments in the region, and I think it would be a very sensible move to establish a research centre for koalas in the Sunshine Coast area. Its priority needs to be to address disease issues to make sure that we do not—as with the Tasmanian devils—run the risk of having the population lost not because of the intervention of man but because of the advent of a disease that we do not seem to be able to effectively combat.

I wrote to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts about this issue. He tells me:

I have asked the Australian Government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee to assess the status of the koala for possible listing as a nationally threatened species under the … EPBC Act …

The Australian Government is also leading a steering committee to revise the National Koala Conservation and Management Strategy … under the auspices of the National Resource Management Ministerial Council … The Strategy provides the national framework for conserving koalas.

I have to say that that is a bit of a bureaucratic response. A strategy is not going to cure the diseases. A strategy is not going to deal with the need to preserve and provide appropriate habitat. It sounds like talk rather than action. Indeed, as the honourable member opposite interjected, there are some places where koalas are anything but an endangered species, so that is not the solution.

We simply need to deal with the impact in New South Wales and Queensland. We need to address the ongoing loss and fragmentation of habitat. We need to look at issues like the threats from dogs and motor vehicles when koalas and people seek to cohabit in residential areas. And we certainly need to better understand the effects of disease. The minister says some of those issues will be central to the strategy, but unless there is a real commitment of funding to research efforts I am afraid that the strategy will just be an empty talkfest. So I call on the minister to think sympathetically about the proposal on the Sunshine Coast to establish a suitable reserve and research strategy to deal with the small remaining population of koalas in that area and to take positive action in the interests of preserving this really iconic Australian species in New South Wales and Queensland.

Finally, in the few minutes that are left to me, I want to refer to digital television, particularly the close-down of analog television which begins in regional Australia later this year. This must be the first thing that a Labor government have done for the country before they have delivered it in the cities. We are the first to lose our analog television, and it is clear that there are going to be serious issues about reception for people living in country communities.

The minister has announced that 100 of the existing 600 self-help television transmitters—these are mainly the black spot transmitters provided by the previous government—are to be converted to digital. For those people the transition should, therefore, be relatively smooth. However, what about other 500 transmitters? The government said it is going to cost $18 million to convert 100. That means $90 million would convert the other 500. The government is proposing to set up new satellite services. They will end up costing more than converting the existing transmitters. Once more, these satellite services will mean the death of localism. No longer will people have access to their local television advertisements or their local community service announcements; those will come from Sydney or Melbourne and will be irrelevant to their needs. As one satellite covers all of Tasmania, South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria, maybe Tasmanians are going to have to start looking at rugby league football instead of something they might want to see, because it could be coming out of Sydney.

So the government has not answered these sorts of issues. They are proposing a new satellite to deal with news services. But that is not the only thing that people want to see from their own local region. They do want localism, and I call on the government to make sure that there is a system in place—before they start closing down analog transmitters—that guarantees that everyone who gets television now will have it after digital television is introduced.

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