Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Birmingham, the Minister representing the Minister for the Environment. Minister, I draw your attention to the numerous fires currently burning within the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, all or most of which started over three weeks ago now. Given that we have already lost over 12,000 hectares which have been burned inside the World Heritage area, including fragile alpine ecosystems and Gondwanan species which are not fire adapted and which in the whole world exist only in very small parts of Tasmania, and given Commonwealth government research shows that the World Heritage area contains outstanding natural and cultural heritage values and delivers more than $1.2 billion every year in economic benefit to Tasmania, not to mention well over 5,000 Tasmanian jobs, why did it take two weeks after the fires started for the Commonwealth government to activate Emergency Management Australia provisions?