Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

It's a great pleasure to join others in making a contribution to an important debate. While I agree with much of what Senator Green said on behalf of the opposition, not all of it is something I can sign up to. I want to start my contribution on this, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Save the Koala) Bill 2021, by acknowledging the passion that the proponent of this bill has in the causes that she prosecutes as the Greens environment spokesperson. I don't think anyone in this place can doubt Senator Hanson-Young's commitment to the cause and what she stands for. Matched with that, though, is the rhetoric that we heard in the contribution she made around development versus environment, and economy versus environment. I think that's something we do need to interrogate a little bit in the time available to me and in the debate on this bill and on what, exactly, it does.

It was pleasing to hear Senator Green look at the effect or impact of this bill and what it would materially do, what difference it would make and whether it would be the answer that we heard in the first speech of the 2022 consideration of this bill. No-one argues with the fact that we need to do everything we can to preserve and protect our precious and fragile environment. Not a single person in this place thinks it is worth burning, chucking away or destroying—no-one. Most people who are characterised as having that view, of course, are people who believe in balance—and that's a concept I'm going to come back to a little later on—be they farmers, foresters or people who are making a contribution to the Australian government's commitment to build a million new homes for Australians to live in and to ease the housing crisis. They're all characterised in the same way as developers who want to 'destroy the environment'.

But I think it is a falsehood to suggest that this bill is the only way to address the issues and pressures being faced by the koala and the environment it lives in. It's wrong to suggest that this is the only way—or, indeed, even a way—because I'm not convinced this bill would materially improve the outcomes for the koala in the way it has been suggested.

The debate that's being set up here frames the parameters of discussion to suggest that the only way to protect the koala is to stop all land clearing. We know, very well, that to enter into an arrangement of that nature, to put in place a moratorium on any form of land clearing, in habitat, that would be contemplated under elements of this bill, would have a dire impact on other parts of our society—that balance I talked about between the environment and the economy.

We have to have the best standards possible when it comes to the management of our environment, and to habitat management for endangered and threatened species, to ensure that we don't make situations worse. That is absolutely central to what we as a developed nation must put in place when it comes to our environmental legislation and the regulation around development, resources extraction and managing the forestry industry. We have to have all of those regimes in place as part of international obligations we sign up to—rightly so and proudly so, as Senator Green said on behalf of the Labor Party. But stopping all clearing of land is not the answer. That's a point that was made in 2021 in the last parliament by the then opposition as well, that this is a blunt instrument that's not effective.

It's important to point out when dealing with this one issue, land clearing, whatever the cause or reason behind it, be it clearing land for productive purposes, such as grazing cattle, cropping, dealing with our needs for sustenance and food or for the creation of land to build houses—we know, as part of last night's budget, that there was a commitment to construct an extra million homes to assist with the housing crisis that we know Australians are facing—that they are not the only reasons. I only have to reflect on the debate on this bill in the last parliament to consider another cause of habitat loss and destruction for the koala.

I refer to the contribution from Senator Faruqi in February of last year. Senator Faruqi made the point that the bushfires of 2019 and 2020 were a major contributor to habitat loss for koalas. The point is that this bill isn't going to stop bushfires.