Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

As the minister has made clear, we do not accept extinctions as inevitable, which was the position and the passivity that was too often taken by those opposite. Of course, it is a priority to do what we can to better understand threats to species and use the most up-to-date advice to protect them.

The government's Threatened Species Action Plan sets ambitious targets, including preventing new extinctions in this country, and the plan includes the maugean skate as a priority species. In addition to the $224.5 million in the Saving Native Species Program, the senator may recall the May budget included in excess of $400 million, almost $440 million, through the Natural Heritage Trust, the doubling of funding for national parks and increased funding for urban rivers.