Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Housing and Urban Development) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Ian Campbell, Minister for the Environment and Heritage. Can the minister confirm that when he announced the $3.2 million in new funding to save the orange-bellied parrot, it was listed on his department’s website as one of the 145 endangered or critically endangered animals? Is this why the minister yesterday upgraded the status of the orange-bellied parrot to ‘critically endangered’? Even after this change, aren’t there still 16 other animals assessed under the law as also being critically endangered? Will the minister now spend $3.2 million on protecting each of the other 16 critically endangered species, including the yellow chat, Gilbert’s potoroo, and the hairy marron? Why does the minister’s special interest in critically endangered species stop at the orange-bellied parrot?