Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes:

(i)

the opening address by the Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation (Senator Abetz) to the 15th Australian Weeds Conference in September 2006 in which he acknowledged that:

•   weeds are one of the most important natural resource management issues Australia faces today,

•   weeds are one of the biggest threats to biodiversity in this country, and

•   for the sake of Australia’s economic wellbeing, our future health and our biodiversity – we must be up to the challenge,

(ii)

that weeds seriously deplete biodiversity and cost the Australian economy approximately $4 billion per year,

(iii)

that funding for the Weeds Cooperative Research Centre for Australian Weed Management runs out in 2008,

(iv)

the application for funding for the years 2007 to 2014 by its replacement, the Invasive Plants Cooperative Research Centre, was rejected,

(v)

that, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, farmers spent over 4 million days working on weeds in the 2004-05 period, and

(vi)

the negative impact that de-funding the Weeds Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) will have on farmers, park managers, natural resource management managers and the meat, livestock and cropping industries; and

(b)

calls on the Government to fund a national body in 2007, so as to create a seamless transition from the existing Weeds CRC, which can deliver nationally-coordinated and collaborative weed research.

Question put.