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

I would like to make a brief contribution on the same matter that Senator Rice was speaking on. We've seen the tragic fires that have occurred recently in this country. We've seen over a billion animals die, according to some reports. The fact that the major parties in this place still support logging carbon-dense, biodiversity-rich native forests is nothing short of a climate crime.

I want to speak in particular about a patch of beautiful land and forest in my home state of Tasmania, the takayna/Tarkine forest, where this week brave forest defenders have been arrested whilst blockading against logging operations. They've done that because they're standing up for that beautiful landscape. They're standing up for the rich, globally unique Aboriginal cultural heritage in that area. They're standing up for the carbon in those forests and they're standing up for the animals which make those forests their home.

I want to profoundly thank the people that have put their bodies on the line, for many years now, to prevent logging in that forest, and I want to say how regrettable it is that Tasmania Police have moved in to arrest them and facilitate the logging industry going into those forests, which they will clear-fell if they get their way. In clear-felling, they will—