Sid Sidebottom (Braddon, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to support those on this side by rising to speak on the motion proposed by the member for Gippsland to disallow regulations under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Grazing of domestic stock within the Australian Alps national parks and reserves, which are on the National Heritage List, has a significant impact on the listed values of those places. The Australian alps are one of Australia's unique landscapes, as has been eloquently agreed by all members who have spoken on this disallowance motion this morning. The alps are listed under the national environment law, the EPBC Act, to protect this area of great national significance.

Over the summer of 2010-11, the new Liberal-National Party government in Victoria quietly reintroduced cattle to the Alpine National Park in Victoria under the guise of a so-called scientific research trial. That has been very clearly covered by the minister, by members on this side and by some of the Independents and the Greens. The Victorian government took that action without first submitting their proposal to the federal government for assessment under the national environmental law to determine if any ecological areas would be impacted by their actions. The minister made it very clear, very early, that the Baillieu government were wrong to reintroduce cattle to the Alpine National Park and that, in doing so, they had set a dangerous precedent for the management of national parks across Australia. That is why this government last year made regulatory changes which formally recognised the significant impact of livestock grazing on the National Heritage values, listed under the EPBC Act, of the Australian alps national parks and reserves.

The regulation specifies that grazing of domestic stock, including cattle, could have a significant impact on the heritage values of the Australian alps National Heritage area and that any future new grazing activities proposed in the Australian alps National Heritage area, including the Alpine National Park, needed to be assessed under the EPBC Act. The minister made that statement last year in introducing the regulation. He has again today eloquently and forcefully given the rationale and reasoning behind that regulation, as have others on this side and others in this place. That is why I was quite prepared to support the minister in opposing this disallowance motion. I think that all in this House should now say where they stand on this important principle of whether you protect your national parks or you do not. We on this side do.

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