Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak to the Illegal Logging Prohibition Amendment (Strengthening Measures to Prevent Illegal Timber Trade) Bill 2024. There are a lot of reasons why we should be focusing on native forest logging in this country, and of course we should be doing everything we can to crack down on the illegal logging that we see both in this country and in my home state of Tasmania, as well as overseas. I understand that my colleague Senator McKim has spoken to a number of measures in the bill, including amendments, which we'll be moving in Committee of the Whole.

Let me tell you what else should be illegal, and that is logging of native forests in 2024, at a time when we're seeing global weather patterns changing so radically that even our best climate scientists can't tell us what is happening. Forests—ancient, magnificent forests like the ones we have in Tasmania—are the lungs of our planet. They are our first line of defence against climate change. They sequester carbon from the atmosphere and they store it. Not only are they absolutely critical in our fight against climate change and in reducing emissions; these forests are full of beautiful, abundant biodiversity found nowhere else on the planet. Yet we are still logging them.

State-sanctioned government logging at a loss is being subsidised by the taxpayer to clear-fell ancient, magnificent rainforests in places like the Tarkine and south-west Tasmania to support a dying industry and the political power of the major parties both in this chamber and in the state parliaments of Tasmania and, as Senator McKim outlined in his contribution, New South Wales and, most recently, Victoria.

We had a very special day on Saturday—and perhaps special for very sombre reasons. We had a day all around the world to remember endangered species: Threatened Species Day. It was on 7 September—the last day that we know of that the Tasmanian tiger lived and breathed on this planet. That's why we celebrated Threatened Species Day—for us to remember how we felt when we lost the Tasmanian tiger.

So it is beyond belief that today in the north-west of Tasmania, in the Advocate newspaper, one of the three newspapers in Tasmania—two are owned by Australian community media—the editor of that newspaper, Mr Anthony Haneveer, wrote an editorial saying:

This might sound a little controversial, but I do not really care about that damned fish.

Sure, it would be unfortunate if the Maugean skate were to go extinct, but I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

We know in Tasmania that we have so many species under threat right now. On Threatened Species Day, Senator Hanson-Young talked about 2,250 threatened and endangered species around the world, and, just last week, 20 new species were added to the list, but in Tasmania we have a species, the maugean skate, on the edge of extinction. We also have the Tasmanian devil, another endangered species fighting for its survival. We have the swift parrot and the orange-bellied parrot, which are also critically endangered, having lost critical habitat, especially to native forest logging. We have the masked owl in the Tarkine, which is also threatened by logging and land clearing for mining companies. While we're facing this global loss of biodiversity, the biggest we've ever seen in our memory as a human species on this planet, we have an editor of a newspaper—some-one in a position of responsibility—literally making a statement that he doesn't care about the extinction of a species.

I say to Mr Haneveer: Do you care about the loss of the Tasmanian devil, or is it just the skate you don't care about? Do you care about the loss of the Tasmanian tiger, something the whole world just remembered only on the weekend? What about the other 2,250 species—do you care about them? Maybe not. It's just the maugean skate where the salmon industry is polluting its last-known habitat. It's pretty clear what Mr Haneveer cares about and that is the salmon industry. How shameful that we would have someone in a position of influence literally making a statement that he doesn't care about the extinction of a species when we should be doing everything that we can. We have a moral obligation to protect nature, and governments need to fund that protection.

I stood at the Australian Museum in Sydney on Friday, along with an amazing group of people, for the opening of the FantasticalSharks &Rays exhibition, which was put on by a number of environment groups and the Australian Museum, working with some of the best artists and young people around this country to highlight the plight of endangered—many of them critically—sharks, rays and skates. The maugean skate was one of the key things on display at that exhibition. It was a positive exhibition. It was young people learning about the state of the world and trying to inspire us with their art to do more to protect these creatures.

I said to the assembled audience that the one thing all these thousands of threatened species around the world have got in common is that they can all be linked to decisions of government. Every single one of them can be linked to decisions of government. Governments are logging high-conservation native forest right now for political reasons. Governments are allowing the pollution of Macquarie Harbour and pushing the maugean skate to the edge of extinction, aided and abetted by people like the editor at the Advocate newspaper in the north-west of Tasmania. Governments are the ones who aren't putting in more marine protected areas to protect critically endangered marine habitats. Governments aren't changing fishery regulations to stop bottom trawling or requiring monitoring on boats to look at their by-catch. Every single species is linked to a decision of government. Approving new fossil fuel projects is a decision of government. We have higher emissions, warming oceans, the loss of habitat, mass coral bleaching, the loss of the giant kelp forest off Tasmania—95 per cent of it gone—and all the beautiful creatures that live in the ocean are gone. But do we really care about that? That was listed as a critically endangered habitat in Australia in 2012, the first one to be listed under federal law. And guess what? Not a single cent was spent by the previous government on trying to restore that habitat. Now, I understand that situation has changed and that the Labor government is looking at funding a recovery plan for the giant kelp forest. Why didn't we do that 12 years ago? Clearly, it's because people in government and in positions of power don't care.

How is it that in 2024 we have these thousands of creatures around the world facing potential extinction? The answer's really simple. It's because we as politicians, as leaders, aren't doing our job. With the maugean skate, the environment minister has a decision before her right now. We found out last week, shockingly—through an FOI discovery—that she hasn't even got a brief from her department yet, after 16 months of looking into this issue, when the Threatened Species Scientific Committee said that the skate needed to be upgraded to critically endangered. Last week we got new evidence from the scientific committee that there were only between 40 and 120 skate left on this planet. And she still won't make a decision. She hasn't even got a brief. I ask: why? Why wouldn't the environment minister have a brief on the loss of this ancient creature that's been with us since the age of the dinosaurs? It's because she wants to kick the can down the road till after the next election. I say to this government: make the decision, base it on the science that underpins the act, and make it soon so we don't lose another species.

I would also say to the Premier of Tasmania, Mr Jeremy Rockcliff, who has not once mentioned the maugean skate or the plight of the Tasmanian devil or the swift parrot because of the logging industry he full-throatedly champions: let the public hear what you've got to say about the potential extinction of these species, especially the maugean skate. This is the great moral challenge and decision of our time. At least speak about it. Don't just talk about your full-throated support for big, foreign owned multinational companies that pay no tax in Australia and are polluting our environment and pushing species to extinction.

As for Mr Anthony Haneveer at the Advocate newspaper in north-west Tasmania: Mr Haneveer, I think you should resign, and, if you don't resign, then the Australian Community Media board need to sack you. How despicable that you would use your platform to essentially green-light the extinction of a species. The tens of thousands of people who will be reading your opinion, who trusted in the institution of your newspaper, can see that in your own words:

This might sound a little controversial, but I do not really care about that damned fish—

a fish that has lived with us since the age of the dinosaurs. What moral right do we have to cause the extinction of a species because of the profits of a couple of multinational salmon companies? Mr Haneveer said:

Sure, it would be unfortunate if the Maugean skate were to go extinct, but I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

This is why we are in an extinction crisis—because of people like Mr Haneveer.

We have to do better and we have to stand up to this bullshit when we see it—