Ian Campbell (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Heritage) Share this | Hansard source

I will be very brief, because I cannot allow what Senator Brown has said to stand on the record. Senator Brown knows, but he will not tell you, that the regional forest agreement that was struck between the Commonwealth and Tasmania in November 1997 followed one of the most extensive consultation processes and processes of identifying biodiversity to make sure that the forests had a balance of protection of biodiversity put in place with a long-term and secure resource security arrangement. The regional forest agreements across Australia, struck between the Commonwealth and the states of varying political persuasions, ensure that each of those forest areas achieve a comprehensive, adequate and representative cross-section of the ecosystem types within those forests. So all of that work has been done. All of those ecosystems have been protected.

It is interesting that Senator Brown would have the audacity to mislead about a document—which is available, because I released it yesterday—prepared by Professor Bob Beeton and an eminent group of scientists, ecologists and statisticians on the state of Australia’s environment. It is a phenomenal document, independently assessing just where we are. It is a five-yearly report, an audit and a checklist on where we are. And Senator Brown said it is scathing in what it says about Australia’s biodiversity loss. What does Professor Beeton’s committee say about the regional forest agreements at page 44? He says, and his committee says:

The regional forest agreements have also been important in conserving forest values.

He goes on to say:

The result of the 2005 Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement—

which builds on those RFAs—

is that more than 156 000 hectares of forest were added to formal and informal reserves and, of that, some 121 000 hectares were old growth forest.

So he hides all of those facts. He hides the fact that under this government we have protected Tasmanian forests and, as a result of the election commitments made by the Prime Minister at the last election, diligently applied, we see the Tarkine forest protected. I remember talking to the Pullinger family down there in November, just after the election. I said to the Tarkine coalition, ‘What would be a good result in terms of protecting the Tarkine?’ And they said: ‘Look, 50,000 hectares would be a reasonable outcome—a bronze medal sort of outcome. Sixty thousand hectares would be a silver medal outcome; 70,000 hectares would be a gold medal outcome.’ And we were able to achieve 72½ thousand hectares of the Tarkine being protected in perpetuity, locked away forever so that future generations of Australians and people from around the world can do as Senator Brown did last weekend and walk through those magnificent forests and enjoy those values.

So under the RFA in Tasmania the forests have that sort of protection. Where the wildlife and other nationally significant species occur, of course they will have to be assessed under the process. I think Senator Brown knowingly misleads in relation to this process. We have a strong law that ensures that these sorts of proposals are assessed, and we also have good policies in place that are protecting and preserving biodiversity in forests across Australia in a way that has never been done before.