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

I will not take long. There is a very noticeable fault with the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, which, as Senator Milne indicated, was brought through by the Howard government. You can describe the fault this way. You can disallow the listing of rare and endangered species, habitats and ecosystems, which have gone through a very long and rigorous scientific assessment, analysis and potential listing process, as has occurred with these critically endangered grasslands in Tasmania. However, for the many, many species, habitats and similar places which are critically endangered and which are, as governments come and go, being lost forever in Australia, there is no process for us to bring them up and get them listed. It still has to go via the minister. The whole thing is completely loaded against the environment.

But here we are with this provision that no listing can occur without there being a political opportunity to use numbers to knock it out. I am aware—you will not be, Acting Deputy President, because you do not have to cross Bass Strait—that it is almost impossible to get a plane seat to Tasmania this weekend. You have to ask: sporting activities and other things aside, why is that? It is because of the global economic situation. Many, many Australians on the mainland want to spend holiday time in Tasmania. In fact, the hospitality industry is doing very, very well and thousands of jobs are being created and supported by it. The airlines have not been able to keep up. Why is that? It is not just an accident at this cool time of the year. It is the sheer beauty and international reputation of Tasmania’s wildness and the preservation of its natural assets.

We have a choice here whether we are simply going to be exploiters, as in the past, or guardians, which is the way of the future—and also where the economy and the jobs are. That it is not understood by last-century thinking, the last-century thinking which disparages all that, does not understand the new economy, does not understand where the jobs lie these days, and is inherent in this motion coming from Senator Colbeck. It is part of an old, but weakening, political culture, not just in Tasmania but elsewhere in Australia.

Senator Milne mentioned the protection of grasslands on the Southern Tablelands, in South Australia and elsewhere. The question we might put to Senator Colbeck is: can he demonstrate where that has been against the interests of local communities? I might put another question. We have had the state government come up with a proposal, and it gained national prominence quite recently, for turning the very region we are talking about into the so-called food bowl of Australia by diverting rivers and waters from western Tasmania into one of the driest regions of Tasmania. These are the very areas where the grasslands we are talking about are. This would presumably change one of the richest fine wool growing areas in the world into a highly irrigated, food-producing area, with as yet unspecified crops. This would be a complete change of land use, which inevitably means a complete change to the natural pattern of those lands and the elimination of the cohabitation of the existing productive grasslands—their replacement with a new form of industry which would see, perhaps, the elimination of some of these grasslands.

I ask: where was the consultation about that? Where is the environmental assessment, let alone the economic and social assessment? Who has consulted with the Indigenous people, who occupied these regions for thousands of years, let alone with the townspeople of Campbelltown, Tunbridge, Ross and the other townships—Jericho and the other townships of the Midlands—or with the people on the land who absolutely love their land as it is. These people on the land are extremely proud of the fact of the persistence of rare, endangered and very, very special natural attributes. They are taking on, with a great deal of enthusiasm, the roles of ensuring that the grasses, the orchids, the skinks, the butterflies, the eagles, the devils and the whole wondrous natural amenity are going to be there for future generations and of warding off the coming inevitable threat—the millions of people coming to Tasmania to enjoy its naturalness.

That is what is at threat from this very poorly-thought-out motion from Senator Colbeck. It runs against the economy and the job creativity, which is now established as Tasmania’s greatest boon for the future. Tasmania is on the threshold of a magnificent future based on its naturalness and its heritage, including its human-built heritage, which are very, very rare in this highly crowded, highly destructive human community that we have on the planet at the moment. There are 6.8 billion people at the moment, there were 2.5 billion when I came onto the planet and there will be nine or 10 billion by mid-century on this very, very stressed planet. Here we have a jewel but somebody says, ‘Well, let’s make sure we vouchsafe that jewel,’ and immediately there is this political reaction saying, ‘No, we will not be part of that process.’ It is pretty disappointing that Senator Colbeck has brought this motion forward. It is pretty disappointing that there should not be a thirst and a wonder and an excitement and enthusiasm about protecting these fabulous remnant grasslands and their ecosystems in Tasmania.