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

This is the International Year of Biodiversity. We have on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald and in other newspapers today the news that there has been a massive loss of biodiversity on the planet with over 30 per cent of wildlife gone since 1970 and an increasing loss of species, including the loss of plant species, across the planet at a totally unacceptable but accelerating rate due to human activity. The red gum forests of Australia are an heirloom of this nation, but the most recent reports are that upwards of 70 per cent of the red gums along the Murray-Darling system are dead or dying under huge stress and the process is continuing.

In the Millewa forests we have a damaged but intact ecosystem of red gums in the Murray system. We have an Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act—let me repeat that—a biodiversity conservation act which requires that there be a probity which errs on the side of protecting biodiversity. Here is an opportunity for it but the government opposes it. It is working with the New South Wales government. What does that mean? What we need to hear in the Senate is that these red gum forests will be protected and that the vigour of this government will be put into protecting this nation’s heritage against this onslaught of extinction, with Australia one of the worst-performing countries. It is time that the legislation was backed up and action was taken. I am surprised the government will not be supporting this motion.