Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker Andrews, I too add my congratulations and it is a pleasure to see you in the new position you have taken up. I am sure you will bring gravitas and the respect that it deserves to that position.

In April this year I visited the Perth Zoo, which is in my electorate and an icon of the Perth environs for many years—over a century now. It is probably about a minute from my place to the Perth Zoo in the beautiful leafy green suburb of South Perth and it serves the community well.

On this particular day I visited with the Hon. Donna Faragher MLC who was representing the minister for the environment, Albert Jacob, from the Western Australian government. It was a morning tea to commemorate the opening of the new orangutan Jungle School exhibit. About 60 people arrived to find a beautiful early morning breakfast set up with scones, coffee and tea, and to see the changes that had been made to the orangutans' compound.

About 80 per cent of orangutan habitat around the world has been lost to logging and permanent agricultural conversion, in particular oil palm plantations. Orangutans are also shot for taking food from plantations and poached for the illegal pet trade.

The Perth Zoo has bred 29 orangutans since 1970 and are doing a fantastic job in a breeding program that is returning orangutans back to their natural habitat. Congratulations to them.

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