Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Well, there you have it. The forests that we are talking about are all inside the RFA process, and there will be no assessment of the wildlife or the forests as far as this destructive pulp mill is concerned. The minister had his head on the desk—I do not blame him. It is an appalling process against this nation by this government. The Prime Minister drives this process. He signed the regional forest agreement. He, with the logging industry, is behind the writing of this component of the legislation.

As the minister knows, I have taken action on Wielangta in the Federal Court against the destruction of species there in south-east Tasmania. The swift parrot is one species that has just returned to the state, in much depleted numbers from its former range. And the proposal is to log the heartland of its breeding in Wielangta. The minister was talking about the forests, but we all know—schoolkids know—that when you cut these forests down he can go and celebrate planting his billionth tree, but those trees are not providing habitat. They are not old enough; they do not grow to the age. Gunns is never going to let them grow to the age; it wants to cut them down again. They need to live 100 years before their branches drop out and the swift parrots, for example, can find a nesting place. No nests, no species: that is what this process is, and no minister to assess it. This legislation makes it abundantly clear that the pulp mill is outside the reach of the minister. This is the minister’s Gunns provision. It is a most shameful piece of legislation.