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

I rise today to speak to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Save the Koala) Bill 2021, introduced by the Greens, a bill that we are incredibly proud of, standing up and fighting for the survival of one of our most iconic animals and part of our most beautiful nature here in Australia. Our iconic koala, much loved around the globe, could soon be extinct in the wild. Just last week we saw the Prime Minister of Japan cuddling a koala in a zoo here in Australia. Without urgent action, sadly, zoos will be the only home where koalas will be seen.

WWF has recently released the Living Planet Report 2022, which was a damning indictment when it comes to extinction. It found global wildlife populations fell by 69 per cent on average between 1970 and 2018. We are indeed facing an extinction crisis. And, shamefully, Australia continues to have the most mammal extinctions in the world. This is a record we should not be proud of.

The report details a disturbing story of continual decline of more than 1,100 wildlife populations in Australia due to the pressures of climate change, habitat destruction and introduced predators. When it comes to koala populations it found they've plummeted in Queensland, New South Wales and the ACT.

We know all too well that the koala is much loved and needs to be saved. The report found that globally land use change is still the biggest threat to nature, destroying or fragmenting the natural habitats of many plant and animal species on land, in fresh water and in our oceans. I couldn't stand here without acknowledging just how devastating it is that we continue to have native forest logging in this country. This report clearly stated that if we cannot limit global warming to 1.5 degrees climate change will likely become the dominant cause of biodiversity loss in coming decades. The irony in this is that, in order to stop dangerous climate change, we need more biodiversity than ever before. We don't just need to stop destroying nature; we need to start restoring nature. The Greens have also got a bill for a climate trigger, which would require polluting projects to be assessed for their emissions and their impact on the climate. It would be another vital reform for our environment laws if we are to make them fit for the crises that we are facing.

At home here in Australia, we know from our own Australia state of the environment report published in July that the overall state of our environment in Australia is poor and deteriorating. It is the result of increasing pressures from climate change, habitat loss, invasive species, pollution and resource extraction. If urgent action is not taken to address these pressures and threats then the koala and many other precious wildlife species will be pushed to the brink of extinction. This bill goes a long way towards stopping habitat loss, whether that loss is due to a new coalmine, gas mine, big property development, cement mine, new road or some other type of project. So long as that proposal is on critical koala habitat, I put to you that it should not go ahead.

This is the type of action we need to reverse biodiversity loss and secure a nature-positive world. Earlier this year, the koala was officially listed as 'endangered'. This uplisting may sound like a positive thing, but it is a devastating mark. It means that, within a decade, koalas have gone from not being listed as 'threatened' at all to being 'vulnerable' and now 'endangered', facing extinction within the next three decades.

It's not really a coincidence that this trend has happened at the same time as we've had a decade-long government who did nothing to protect the environment and who, in fact, put their foot on the pedal to environmental destruction. The environment-wrecking Liberal and National parties were in power for that exact amount of time. Of course, we know their attitude towards the koala. All you need to do is listen to the debates coming out of the New South Wales parliament to know these members do not care about the significance of the extinction of the koala.

I hope that the Labor Party will be different. I hope that this government can turn the tide. I hope that together in this place we can see that, if we cannot save the koala, we have no hope of turning around the trend of environmental destruction. It was during the Liberal and National parties' reign that I first introduced this bill, but, with the pressures of the mining corporations, their donor lobbyists and their property developer mates, they were never going to stop the destruction of critical koala habitat. I hope Minister Plibersek will be better.

Minister Plibersek has announced an objective to stop extinction; well, here is an opportunity to do just that. We can't just talk about saving our koala and about saving our wildlife. There's no point just having a target for extinction unless you are going to stop ruining and wrecking the very homes of these vulnerable animals. The single most important thing for halting the extinction of the koala is to stop destroying koalas' homes. Stop destroying their habitat.

There are a number of proposals right now on the desk of the minister from companies—whether it's BHP or it's property developers—who are asking her to sign off on the destruction of critical koala habitat. The BHP proposal for the Peak Downs coalmine expansion beggars belief: BHP want to expand their coalmine right into critical koala habitat. This proposal sits on the desk of the minister today. If the minister agrees to and signs off on this proposal—if she gives it the green light—she is condemning koalas to extinction. So stand strong, stand up for the koala, stand up for your convictions and ensure that big companies like BHP cannot continue to make profits off the destruction of koala homes.

Then there's the Mount Pleasant coalmine expansion in the Upper Hunter region that would cause almost one billion tons of carbon emissions and which is also right smack bang in critical habitat. There are other projects like massive housing developments near Campbelltown, threatening Greater Sydney's only disease-free growing koala population. There are more and more threats on koala habitat. And where is the minister in this?

Of course, there are many projects on the minister's desk, where big companies are asking her to greenlight their projects at the cost of the survival of our native species. And it's not just about the koala, of course. We know the impacts of the MMG tailings dam in the World Heritage Tarkine and the impact that's going to have on the native species there, particularly the masked owl. There are so many projects where this minister can actively step in now and stop in order to save and reverse the extinction of our wildlife.

The reason this is so important is because we know our environment is in crisis. The state of our environment is at its worst point in time, ever. We have to turn the trend around. One project might not seem so much, but when you add all of these up what we see is a devastating tsunami of threatened species, endangered species and extinction. And once these animals are gone for good, they are gone. They are not coming back. It is an international shame that right here, right now, the Australian koala is on the endangered list, and yet there are still corporations wanting to destroy their homes. This legislation would stop that from happening. This legislation would put a moratorium on the destruction of critical koala habitat, to give the koala the opportunity to survive. This isn't about being antidevelopment; this is about making sure these projects are done in the right places not the wrong places. And when you are facing a world where the koala may be extinct within the next few decades you must make the right choices. Allowing a coal expansion, or a big development or a cement mine to happen smack bang in the middle of koala habitat is the wrong choice.

I hope that this government have a bit more guts than the previous one. I hope that this government fulfils their promise to the Australian people that they will care more about the environment than the last mob. But we need to see this action in full. It's not good enough just to talk about the koala or have your nice cuddly photo. You actually have to stop the destruction of their homes, and the Minister for the Environment and Water and the Prime Minister, Mr Albanese, have the power to save the koala today. A moratorium on protecting critical koala habitat would save not just the koala but many, many other species that live within that environmental pocket.

As we face the dual crisis of climate change and extinction and biodiversity loss we must be smarter about how we manage these issues. We need to make sure that the extinction crisis is considered as seriously as the climate crisis, because if it is not we will lose the koala and many of our other Australian native wildlife species for good. And it's not just about the impact that that has on us as a community, and the global and international shame: it is the biodiversity loss that we will all suffer from. If we want to deal with the climate crisis that confronts us and to keep temperatures below 1.5 degrees—two degrees at the very least—we need to change the way we engage with our natural world. We know the destructive effects that climate change is already having. We can see them and feel them—floods, fires, more floods, extreme weather. The climate has changed. It's here. It's already threatening our homes, our livelihoods, our jobs. One of the major and urgent things that need to happen is the protection and restoration of nature, because biodiversity is an essential part of our toolkit for combatting the climate crisis. Why on earth would any minister, in 2022, allow the destruction of koala habitat, knowing that our koala faces extinction, that our biodiversity is needed more than ever and that nature is crying out for help?

I look forward to hearing the other contributions on this bill, because this is an important debate. It is about choice, about trade-offs and about prioritisation. I don't think for one second that BHP's expansion of a coalmine should be given a higher priority than saving the koala's critical habitat at this point in time. It is not the right place to do it. For far too long corporations and governments have done deals that have traded off our wildlife, that have offset their homes. And over and over again we've seen these offsets to be absolute shams and rorts, bordering on corruption. All you need to do is look at the Auditor-General's report tabled in the New South Wales parliament to see that the koala has been undersold too many times. It's time to save the koala.