Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

For those who come in here and say that the basis for this is fire risk and science and we need a trial: if you are going to base your argument on the science, let us look at the science, and the science is in. We have evidence, and I have not heard one member from the opposition talk about the study that was done after 2003, because it does not help their argument but it is what the science says.

We had a thing in Victoria in 2009—which again I have not heard any member from either Victoria or the coalition talk about—called the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission. It had a $40 million budget. It sat for over 155 days. It came up with many recommendations. Not one of them was that we should reintroduce grazing into the park because it would reduce fire risk, despite the fact that the royal commission looked at these areas and looked at all of these issues and despite the fact that I suspect that some people probably made submissions to it to that effect.

But let us take this argument even further. Let us assume that you are prepared to ignore the fact that there has been a case study of this after 2003 and ample scientific evidence. Let us ignore the fact that we have had a royal commission looking at fires in Victoria. Let us just take the argument on face value that you want to have a controlled trial. If that is right, why did the scientist who is supposedly conducting this trial first find out about it after the Baillieu government introduced the cattle into the park? He found out about it when he read it in the paper. If you really wanted to conduct a trial, wouldn't you appoint the scientist and then go and get them to investigate the area, work out their methodology, conduct their initial research, establish the baseline situation and then set out how you would conduct a trial?

No, that is not what happened here. What happened here was that the Baillieu government, within five minutes of being elected, put the cattle back into the park and then thought: 'Well, we need a bit of a fig leaf for this. Let's go and talk to a scientist. Let's go and arrange a scientist to get involved.' And the scientist did not even know that the cattle had been introduced. It is a fig leaf of a justification. It has been pulled away, and the sight behind it is not pretty. The Victorian government is misusing science to deliver on a very blatant political deal. The minister's actions are to be commended and the regulation should stand.

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