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

I thank Senator Williams for that different point of view. It is my assessment that for a long, long time before Australia became a nation, it was subject to grassing growing, lightning strikes and bushfires, and there were millions and millions of koalas here until the great slaughter of the early twenties. The decline since then is a matter of conjecture, but there is a lot more than the issues raised by the senator—such as erosion, loss of natural forest, spread of urban areas, tollways and so on. It is time we took a raincheck on this iconic species.

This motion has been motivated by a threatened species statement by the Minister for Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts, the Hon. Peter Garrett, which did not list the koala as rare and endangered but left it to regional and state listing. That led to some calls to me. There has never been an inquiry from this parliament into the status of the koala, not ever, hence this motion. There is a departmental and scientific study into the matter. Let that go into a national inquiry. There are people who work in the service of koalas who have given their lives to the service of koalas who do not believe that inquiry or the outcome is going to help. They think that the species is highly vulnerable to extinction, and we should know the facts of the matter. This inquiry should proceed.

Question agreed to.