Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The swift parrot is a beautiful little bird. It's the fastest parrot in the world and it's being logged into extinction. There are just a few hundred left in the wild, which leaves that species in a perilous and parlous state. And what's the response from the Labor and Liberal parties? Support the industrial logging industry which is destroying swift parrot habitat! Tasmania's magnificent forests are home to this bird, one of only two migratory species of parrot in the world, along with the orange-bellied parrot.

The Labor and Liberal parties want to log its habitat. They have released a recovery plan which has not been signed off by the swift parrot recovery team and which fails abjectly to address the primary threat to the swift parrot, which is logging its habitat. The actions that Minister Plibersek should take, rather than just concentrating on media spin, are clear. If she wants to save the swift parrot, then she should ensure that its habitat is not destroyed by the native forest logging industry. And, while she's at it, if she wants to save the maugean skate, she should get the fish farms out of Macquarie Harbour. That's what we need to see.

Minister Plibersek has committed to zero extinctions, but what does she actually mean by that? Is she actually committed to maintaining viable populations of all existing species in the wild? Or does she think that a captive breeding program in a zoo is enough to meet that commitment? If it's the former, if she is committed to ensuring viable populations of all existing native species in the wild, then she's in as much trouble as the swift parrot and the maugean skate. That's because she's presiding over the slide of those two species into extinction. The swift parrot is being logged into extinction and the maugean skate is being driven into extinction by the industrial salmon industry in Tasmania. I urge people: do not buy Tasmanian salmon, because that is extinction salmon. That industry is knowingly driving the maugean skate, a relic species that has been in existence for many hundreds of millions of years, into extinction. We've got to do better. We must do better. End native-forest logging and get the fish farms out of Macquarie Harbour.

Question agreed to.