Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's a pleasure to follow the shadow minister for confected outrage! He really is an expert at it. We are a nation of diverse, exciting and sometimes terrifying flora and fauna, with many varying ecosystems across our lands, oceans and skies providing a range of wildlife and a place for them to call home. Our wildlife, including kangaroos, wombats, kookaburras, various reptiles and a whole range of beautiful insects, birds and flora, is part of what makes Australia the way it is. That's why it's imperative that we do all we can to protect our native flora and fauna, particularly those whose existence is threatened with extinction because of mass habitat loss.

My electorate of Macarthur actually has the most genetically pure koalas in the country. We have the only peri-urban population of koalas who are chlamydia free, and they are at huge risk. Before I was first elected in 2016, I tried to get the New South Wales Liberal-National government to do something to protect that environment. They did nothing. Matt Kean, who was previously the environment minister, became the New South Wales Treasurer under the Perrottet Liberal regime. I actually invited him out to the electorate, and he came out, had a look and agreed that we needed to protect our koala habitat and koala population, but he did nothing. He talked a lot, but he did nothing, and that's one of the reasons that the Liberal Party lost the New South Wales state election. I invited other environment ministers, including the federal environment minister— at that stage, when I was first elected in 2016, it was Josh Frydenberg—to come out and have a look at our koala population to see what was happening to the habitat and to try and do something about it. He agreed with me it was a problem, but he never came and visited. Subsequent environment ministers have really done nothing in the federal sphere to protect our koalas until the recent election of the Albanese Labor government.

I understand this issue really well. My electorate of Macarthur is the fastest-growing electorate in the country. We now have a constituent population of well over 150,000 people. It is by far the biggest electorate, yet we still have rapid growth and habitat destruction, and our koalas are on the brink of extinction. I'm very, very thankful that Tanya Plibersek, the Minister for the Environment and Water, has today committed to the Saving Koalas Fund Community Grants, and I will be encouraging our local councils and our local environment groups to apply for some of the grants. There is over $70 million committed. The grants will be between $50,000 and $200,000 and will go some way to improving koala habitat and providing protection for our local koalas.

However, the one thing that will make a difference is for us to provide a koala national park, and I have in mind a twin rivers national park between the Georges River on one side and the Nepean River on the other. Unfortunately, this is very seductive land for developers, and developers now have control over large swathes of land which is koala habitat and which, unfortunately, unless something is done urgently, will end up being turned into housing. I recognise that people have to live somewhere. If we are going to rapidly increase our immigration rate—which we are—and if we are going to provide adequate housing for our population, we need public housing, we need social housing and we need private housing, but that should not be at the expense of our local wildlife and our koalas in particular.

We have other wildlife as well as the koala. We have rock wallabies, wallaroos, wombats, lace monitors, large lizards, lots of snakes, ranging from carpet snakes through to red-bellied black snakes, brown snakes, tiger snakes and death adders. We have lots of local wildlife, but the koalas are the ones that are really at risk of extinction. Unless we do something about continued habitat loss due to pressure for housing—and there's a huge development happening at Appin on the outskirts of my electorate, which is right in the middle of koala territory—we will lose our koalas.

I'm calling on the new New South Wales Labor government and the federal Labor government to now press forward, aiming for a national twin rivers koala park to protect that koala habitat. If we don't do that, our koalas will be gone. Our wonderful colony of over 300 koalas have been studied over decades. They live predominantly in the bush that stretches right along the Nepean and Georges rivers through Appin, St Helens Park, Winterbourne, Kentlyn and into Holsworthy. They also communicate, I believe, into the Sutherland Shire, which is represented by Jenny Ware, the member for Hughes. Our commitment must be to protect that habitat, and that is urgent. Interestingly, not only are our koalas genetically pure and chlamydia free, they are the first koala colony recorded by the new European settlers in Australia in the late 1700s. The first koalas that were seen and documented by the first European settlers in Australia still exist, but not for much longer if we continue to allow habitat loss.

This is not a party political idea. This is something that should have bipartisan support. I believe that both major parties have been allowing development without considering the impact of habitat loss on our endangered species, going back many decades. It's very important that the urban sprawl stops. We need to have a twin rivers national park, and I will push for this no matter who is in government. Previous Liberal and National governments in the last 10 years—state and federal—have done nothing. I've begged them to come out and do something about this. I'm on record as saying I don't want to make this a political issue. This should be a completely bipartisan issue, but now it is time to act, and I encourage our federal government, under Anthony Albanese, and the incoming New South Wales Labor government, under Chris Minns, to do this urgently.

I'm proud to be part of a Labor government that understands the importance of the environment, of air quality and of water quality and understands the importance of dealing with climate change. The reforms that we've already put in place in a short space of time are remarkable, but this issue for my community of Macarthur transcends political parties. It really transcends any thought of personal or political gain. It's what good government does, and it focuses on our environment, our flora and fauna, and protection so that our children can do the same things that I can. I can go to the outskirts of my electorate and see koalas in the trees. Children in St Helens Park Public School have a koala viewing platform in their playground. They can go into their school ground, look into the trees and see koalas. I don't want them to be the last generation to be able to do that.

Several other species, of course, are under threat around Australia, and it is very important that we protect them as well. Tanya Plibersek, the Minister for the Environment and Water, is well aware of that. It's of great concern that we continue to see fairly rapid species loss. There are many under threat, including insects like the tube web spider, the mountain frog in the Snowy Mountains, various orchids and the white-footed dunnart, which is a little marsupial that is on the edge of extinction, and we continue to have issues with many other species that are under threat. This should be a bipartisan issue. I would like to see both major parties commit to a twin rivers national park in the Macarthur electorate before it's far too late. I don't want to still be a member of parliament and see our local koalas become extinct. Many, many people have worked hard on koala protection, but, if we continue to have urban sprawl and massive development on the outskirts of our major cities, we are going to see habitat loss and species loss.

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