Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Leader of the Government in the Senate (Senator Birmingham) today to a question without notice to asked by Senator Hanson-Young relating to the environment.

I asked the government today when they will respond in full to the recommendations in the alarming report of the review of Australia's environment laws conducted by Professor Graeme Samuel. This was a review that was done under law. It was required because, every 10 years, we review the adequacy of our environment laws. This report shows that the adequacy of our environment laws is woeful. They are not protecting our forests. They are not protecting our animals. They not protecting our precious places, our beaches and our coastlines. They are not protecting them, and, instead, they are allowing precious parts of this country, our wilderness, our bushland and many of our native animals to be trashed and endangered by mining, by forestry, by big developers. It's time that we had laws in this country that actually protect our environment and don't offer an incentive for those who do the wrong thing to keep getting away with it.

One of the key recommendations in this report, recommendation 15, is that the regional forest agreements that are currently in place that allow logging in Australia's native forests should not be exempt from our environment laws. That is a fundamental point being made here in this report that has been handed to the government and is waiting for a response. Just today the Federal Court has handed down a decision in relation to logging in native forests and the validity of these regional forest agreements. It has said that, under the law as it is, this logging is able to continue. Many, many Australians will be shocked to hear that it is perfectly legal in this country to log in our native forests, to endanger our native animals in these native forests, and that there is no environmental law in this country that protects these forests and these animals from these logging companies and logging projects. Isn't it unthinkable that, despite how precious our environment is, despite what little native forest we have left in this country, it is perfectly legal under current law to trash and burn? It is quite clear in the review and the report put forward— (Time expired)