Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

You certainly would not let a few facts get in the way of a good argument, would you, Senator Macdonald? The clearing of our native vegetation, which everyone recognises as one of the major causes of the loss of biodiversity, and feral and introduced animals, which everyone recognises as another of the major causes of loss of biodiversity, are suddenly not the real causes of the loss of biodiversity. Australia has the highest rate on the planet of pneumonia and decline in critical weight range of native animals, but it seems to be okay with both the coalition and the government that we water down our federal environmental laws. It horrifies me to hear Senator Thorp and the government continue to use the industry rhetoric of 'green tape'. Nothing demonstrates more clearly that the government have bowed down to industry and the miners than their adoption of the rhetoric of 'green tape'. When they say 'green tape', they mean environmental laws that are put in place to protect our environment.

It is absolutely essential that we have strong federal environmental laws. In my home state of Western Australia the importance of having such laws is nowhere more evident than in the state government's granting of environmental approval just this week for the development of James Price Point in the Kimberley on the basis of an extremely flawed environmental assessment process. In Western Australia we could not find five independent environmental specialists with the expertise to be able to make an assessment on the development project for James Price Point. Four of the EPA members had to excuse themselves because they had a conflict of interest. Nothing speaks more plainly of the fact that we need strong federal environmental laws. If a state cannot find five independent people to do an environmental assessment, at least the Commonwealth can take a much more independent view in looking at development proposals.

Let's look at the environmental assessment process that was carried out in Western Australia and the environmental impact assessment statement that the proponents put up. It is riddled with errors, mistakes and flaws—riddled with them. The proponents did not seem to be able to count the number of whales that use the James Price Point area. They did not seem to be able to recognise—though, if they had read some of the scientific literature and done proper surveys, they would have recognised it—that the James Price Point area is one of the most important whale nurseries in the world. They only seemed to be able to see the humpback whales, not the other whales which use the area. They did not recognise the fact that there are at least four different types of dolphins in the area. They failed to find the miniature spinner dolphin, and they did not properly address the issues around the snub-nosed dolphin. They did not find turtle nesting sites near the James Price Point development site. Could that have been because they apparently carried out the survey in the non-nesting time? They did not find the bilbies using the terrestrial area. They downplayed the importance of the vine thickets in the area. They did not do the proper research on the importance of the dinosaur trackways in the area. The conditions on the protection of the dinosaur footprints are laughable, and they did not consider the interruption to the songlines associated with the footprints.

There were all these flaws, and I have not even touched on the issues around the importance of the area for dugongs and the fact that the proponents totally underestimated the impact of the development on dugongs due to the loss of sea grasses. They have not dealt with the fact that the development will move millions of tonnes of dredging materials or the impact that this will have not only on coastal processes but also on feeding grounds for turtles down at Quandong Point. Turtles there are already under pressure from the Gorgon development, which is occurring on one of the most important sites for endangered species on the planet—Barrow Island—on which, because it is an island, endangered species can be protected. All these flaws demonstrate both the 'development at all costs' approach taken in Western Australia—in the Burrup, we have lost priceless Aboriginal heritage—and the need for strong environmental protection laws at the federal level. (Time expired)