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

I, and also on behalf of Senators Rice, McKim and Whish-Wilson, move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) native forest logging in Tasmania continues to destroy nature, threatened species, and our climate,

(ii) last year the Bob Brown Foundation (BBF) lodged a challenge against the Commonwealth Government, Tasmanian government, and Sustainable Timber Tasmania in the Federal Court arguing Tasmania's Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) contradicted the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the EPBC Act) by not protecting endangered species such as the Swift Parrot, and was therefore invalid,

(iii) on 3 February 2021 the Federal Court ruled against BBF, finding Tasmania's RFA is valid, and

(iv) this ruling vindicates the finding by the independent review of the EPBC Act (the Samuel Review) that 'the EPBC Act is ineffective ... does not enable the Commonwealth to effectively protect environmental matters that are important for the nation ... [and] is not fit to address current or future environmental challenges'; and

(b) calls on the Morrison Government to urgently overhaul Australia's national environmental laws to adopt the recommendations from the Samuel Review to reform destructive logging laws, enact stronger laws that protect our environment and wildlife and create an independent watchdog to hold those who trash our environment to account.