Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

During the winter break, we had some very special visitors to my electorate of Bendigo. We had some visitors from Tasmania. A colony of the swift parrot actually visited my electorate. It's estimated that there are only about 500 left; that's how critically endangered they are. I had the opportunity, with the Castlemaine chapter of BirdLife, to visit them one morning and see them in action. They are, as their name suggests, swift. It was in Muckleford in my electorate where we saw them enjoying their morning breakfast. What struck me with BirdLife and with the Landcare owners and Landcare carers in the group that we were going out with was the importance of working with local landholders. Whilst we were viewing the birds in a public park, where the birds were feeding and staying was on private land. It was just a reminder of how we at a local level need to work together with our Landcare groups and with our landholders to ensure that we have the habitat that they require.

As the parliament knows, the swift parrot is one of only two migratory birds that we have in Australia, and they are critically endangered. That is why our government is committed to doing what we can to ensure that they have habitat now and going forward.