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

Last month, horrific footage emerged in South Australia of koalas swinging from falling trees on Kangaroo Island as the forest was being logged. It was harrowing to see these poor koalas clinging on for dear life as the trees were being knocked down and their homes destroyed. The company responsible is called Kiland. It's New South Wales based. They had a management plan that allowed them to chop down these trees while koalas were still in them. Dozens of koalas have been killed and dozens more injured. This is barbaric, it's disgusting and it needs to stop. Those responsible inside this company need to be held to account. Who has been sacked because of this? Who will be sacked because of this? How do we make sure this company never, ever gets another contract like this one?

But it gets worse, because the money that was being used in this particular operation was partly funded by the Australian taxpayer, by the federal government. Fifteen million dollars was committed by the federal government to support parts of this operation. The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Minister Watt, needs to answer and make it very clear to the South Australian people and to people across this country and the world that this type of activity is barbaric and should never, ever happen again.