Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

From the 15th to the 25th of this month in Doha, the World Heritage Committee are meeting to consider many issues. One of those issues is the recommendation by the federal government to rescind 74,000 hectares of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area that was extended by the previous government to the tune of 170,000 hectares in 2014, albeit under duress—this has become a common theme today—from the double whammy of a government controlled by a minority of people in the federal parliament and, in my home state of Tasmania, a government controlled by a minority in the form of the Greens.

The World Heritage listing that was put forward under the control of the member for Watson in 2013 was nothing more than a political construct. Environment Tasmania recently released an Essential Research poll that apparently states that only 17 per cent of Australians are in favour of the government doing what it said it would do prior to the federal election in September. I do not want to labour the point, but I stand here because I got a 14 per cent swing—the largest swing in the nation—principally because we stood for something and we said that the communities impacted most by this political construct, the extension of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, had not been consulted. They simply had not been consulted.

I do not know who the 17 per cent of Australians were, but in September the Tasmanian spoke very, very clearly. More recently, they spoke very clearly in March this year at our Tasmanian state election, and particularly in regional Tasmania—it was business as usual in Denison—where, of the 15 seats available, 10 went to the Liberal Party. And it was on a clear stance to unwind what was nothing more than a political construct. It was not based on science and not based on fact. In fact, I would argue that the World Heritage Committee have breached their own guidelines. This is quite significant; this was never a minor boundary adjustment. They refer to 10 per cent as being a minor boundary adjustment, and 170,000 hectares was indeed far more than the 10 per cent that they, in their own guidelines, suggest to be a minor boundary adjustment. As I said before, there was no consultation with the people and the communities most impacted by this listing. In fact, ICOMOS, one of the advisory bodies to the World Heritage Committee, actually advised against the listing in April 2013 because of a lack of consultation.

We Tasmanians are very proud indeed of the World Heritage listing. It is an important part of the Tasmanian brand and it is indeed a world-class estate. But the extensions potentially devalue the wilderness values of the Tasmanian World Heritage Area.

The other question that I would raise is: if the World Heritage Committee have breached their own process, their own guidelines, yet put nothing into the management of the areas that are required to be managed by, in this case, Australia, it is actually a threat. It is actually an attack on the sovereignty of our country. We support, applaud and value World Heritage, but they must follow the processes that are there quite clearly, and they did not in the case of the listing of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area extension in 2013. I hope they will listen and I hope they will go back and review their processes.

House adjourned at 17:00.