Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the inclusion of the wetlands and inner floodplains of the Macquarie Marshes in the list of threatened ecological communities made under section 181 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 on 5 August 2013 and presented to the House on 12 November 2013, be disallowed.

The regulation I seek to have disallowed is not of environmental benefit. It was introduced by former Minister Butler on the last day before the election writs were issued in August. The regulation was about increasing bureaucracy, not improving the environment. It would have increased the size of the Macquarie Marshes out to 200,000 hectares. The area affected by this regulation is largely farmland, and it also affected all activities up river, in the Macquarie Valley. Apart from the fact that the regulation was just going to add another level of green and red tape to the farmers and communities in the valley, it was all done in a very rushed process. On investigating the list that I received of consulted community groups, I found that the consultation was very scant and in some cases nonexistent.

I want to say to the people of the marshes that the marshes still are a Ramsar listed site. All the protections to threatened species are in place. This regulation did nothing to enhance that. Indeed, two previous ministers, both Labor and coalition, had refused to introduce this regulation. It was implemented in a rushed way; it was introduced at five minutes to midnight before the election was called and I move that it be disallowed.

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