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

I also seek leave to make a brief statement.

Leave granted.

The Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service, actually called the national parks and wildlife service originally, was set up by the Bethune Liberal government in 1972 at the time of the furore over the destruction of Lake Pedder National Park by the Hydro-Electric Commission of Tasmania. That Liberal government was preceded and then followed by the Reece Labor government, which did indeed destroy Lake Pedder. It was the second national parks department in Australia after New South Wales and it has served the state well. We heard the Premier of Tasmania just last night saying that 45 per cent of Tasmania is, to quote him, ‘locked up’. The fact is that if you have 45 per cent of any state under protection then you absolutely, logically and sensibly, will have a protection agency to deal with the half a million to one million visitors a year coming to Tasmania because of that superb natural asset. It is a far bigger job creator than the destruction of forests in Tasmania. It is absolutely incredible and an indictment of the Labor government in Tasmania that they are abolishing the Department of Environment, Parks, Heritage and the Arts. It is almost as if there is a hate for the beauty of Tasmania abroad amongst some of the old thinkers in the Labor Party. Far from instructing, as Senator Perry said, the Tasmanian government to do anything, this Senate has a responsibility, no less than that of the Labor government in Tasmania, to look after World Heritage areas and national heritage areas. (Time expired)