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

I present the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Abolition of Alpine Grazing) Bill 2011. Every day that the Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities does not use the powers available to him under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to remove cattle from Alpine National Park is another day of damage to threatened and endangered species and precious ecological communities in Victoria’s high country.

This parliament cannot, in good conscience, wait for the bureaucratic navigations through the EPBC Act to play out in painstakingly slow time before anything is done to put an end to this damage. The minister may argue that he is held back by the act—and he and I could argue at length about whether or not he is being too cautious before using his powers—but, given the unsatisfactory speed with which the department is required to work through the EPBC in relation to alpine grazing, one thing is clear: this parliament has the opportunity to decisively act to protect what it knows to be threatened and endangered species and ecological communities, and it can do so now. It can act now to abolish cattle from what is meant to be a pristine national heritage place.

Before I explain the provisions of the bill, I want to go back to the origins of the failure of governance that allows cattle to continue to graze in Victoria’s pristine high country. Cattle were removed from the Alpine National Park in 2005 by the Victorian Labor government, following an investigation by the Victorian Alpine Grazing Parliamentary Taskforce. Before 2005, 61 licences were used by approximately 45 operators, allowing almost 8,000 cattle to graze in the national park.

Last month the Victorian Baillieu coalition government reintroduced cattle grazing under the guise of scientific research into the alleged benefits of cattle grazing for fire control. Up to 400 cattle have been introduced to six ‘research’ sites in the Alpine National Park. There is no scientific justification for allowing the return of cattle to the park. The excuse of scientific research has absolutely no validity. In an earlier speech to this place, I suggested that the rationale surrounding this practice has about as much legitimacy as that of the Japanese government when they claim to be conducting whaling for so-called scientific research purposes.

The most significant peer reviewed scientific research on alpine grazing was carried out shortly after the 2003 fires in the park. Approximately 100 kilometres of transects across grazed areas of the Bogong High Plains were measured. The conclusion was that grazing cannot be justified on scientific grounds. The report concluded:

There was no statistically significant difference between grazed and ungrazed areas in the proportion of point burnt—

and that—

the use of livestock grazing in Australian alpine environments as a fire abatement practice is not justified on scientific grounds.

That is a report that coalition members in this chamber might wish to look at. Despite this peer reviewed research and despite the findings of the Alpine Grazing Taskforce, the Victorian coalition—barely one month into their term of government—proceeded to meet highly political promises that they made to minor players and lobby groups in the lead-up to the 2010 state election. Cattle are in the high country again not because the state government have determined the scientific research to be inconclusive; cattle are there only for the basest of political reasons.

So shaky were the grounds of reintroduction of cattle to the high country that the Victorian government concocted this so-called trial only at the highest levels of the state Department of Sustainability and Environment and the newly elected government and then proceeded to argue that the trial was of such insignificance that it did not need to refer it to the federal minister for the environment, although the EPBC clearly requires it. In fact, this legally cute arrangement even avoids the provisions of the state’s own National Parks Act. Clearly the state government is going to extreme lengths to meet its political promises.

At the federal level it is a failure of the EPBC legislation—an act that is long overdue to be rewritten—that Minister Burke is now having to direct the federal department to examine every legal loophole and every last piece of information relevant to this activity before he can even begin to question the Victorian government’s decision not to refer the action of cattle grazing to him. The EPBC cannot be reviewed and improved soon enough. In the meantime, though, the alpine grazing matter is of utmost urgency and the parliament needs to overturn this irresponsible decision by the state government as soon as it can.

There should be no doubt about the constitutional basis for this bill: internationally listed threatened and endangered species and ecological communities are being damaged right now. It is therefore the responsibility of the Commonwealth to protect these species and ecological communities. Given the cynicism and irresponsibility with which the coalition state government has attempted to fly under the federal radar, the inevitable claims by the Victorian government of federal interference in state affairs should be rejected for what they are: excuses and hypocrisy.

The Victorian state government’s return of cattle grazing to the Alpine National Park is an act of environmental vandalism and this bill puts an end to it. My bill amends the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to provide that the minister is deemed to have received from the government of Victoria a referral of its proposal to allow the controlled action of grazing in the national park—that is, it does that which the Victorian government has been too irresponsible to do. The bill goes further to deem the minister to have decided that the controlled action of alpine grazing is clearly unacceptable under the act due to the significant impact of grazing on threatened species and ecological communities. This in itself is enough to stop the trial. However, the bill goes further to specify other reasons for rejecting the trial, including that grazing on a scale actually necessary to achieve any fire control objectives would have a much larger impact.

The effect of deeming the minister to have made these decisions will be to require the minister, under section 74C of the EPBC Act, to notify the Victorian government as soon as practicable of the deemed decision, including the reasons for the decision, thus finally putting an end to the practice of alpine grazing. The bill does not attempt to undermine the good work of the department in putting together the case against alpine grazing. The bill merely requires, instantly, the removal of cattle from the park and avoids the time-consuming process of getting the same outcome through the flawed process currently in the act.

I hope the minister appreciates the urgency of removing cattle from the park. After all, he was in the national park only a few days ago. His rhetoric is commendable but it needs to be matched with action. I ask the minister to join me in condemning the action of cattle grazing in Alpine National Park and join me in saving further destruction of threatened and endangered species and ecological communities by supporting this bill. As the minister himself said to the House as recently as question time last Tuesday, the Alpine National Park is a park, not a farm. Parliament needs to act now to prevent further damage in this national heritage listed place. I commend the bill to the House.

Bill read a first time.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In accordance with standing order 41(c), the second reading will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.