John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'll go there all right. Lock up country and leave it, and do not control the fuel levels on it—burn the country; kill the animals. There are 90 million tonnes of CO2 in the atmosphere—that is not counted, because the grass will grow again and that will neutralise it, according to the Greens. It is just amazing. What you need to do is talk to Professor John Wamsley and learn about managing the environment. You have no idea. You are environmental wreckers, because you lock-up country, let the fuel growth, let the lightning strike it— and burn it from one end to the other.

Go up to the Pilliga—where it burnt, four years ago, from one end to the other. And you are concerned about the koalas. I showed a Greens senator this week a photo of a koala out the front of my house. It will not get burnt, because the farm where the koala lives is managed. The fuel levels are kept low.

Let's go back to what went wrong and why. In the last hundred years, 50 per cent of the threatened species have been listed in Australia and 50 per cent of the species that have become extinct are in Australia. I will tell you why it is. Along came to Australia a thing called a fox. It killed the native animals that grazed the country that kept the fuel levels down. Now we have the Greens and their National Parks Association locking-up country. The Labor Party is in bed with the Greens in New South Wales, locking-up all of its land, and it is not managed. It will burn and it will burn. It is only a matter of time that the red gum forests in the south of the state, around Deniliquin, will burn and destroy that timber, and the animals live in it. You must control your country and manage it. This is a problem. So much land is locked up, and it is not managed. That is a fact of life.

They will not allow grazing. They do not allow sheep and cattle in there to reduce the fuel levels. Once the fuel levels become greater than five or 10 tonnes to the hectare, with a 40 degree day and a 50 kilometre wind the fire is uncontrollable. Some of that country that burned in Victoria had up to 150 tonnes to the hectare of fuel—grass and twigs six millimetres in diameter or less. It was uncontrollable. Lives were lost. It was an absolute disgrace. One day you will learn to manage the environment instead of letting it burn and destroy the timber, with the hot fires in the crown of the trees. The fires are that hot. And the native grasses and the seed on the ground. God help the animals there. I am glad that I manage my little place I live on, and I am sure that Senator Nash and her husband, Dave, are exactly the same.