Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Housing and Urban Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Ian Campbell, Minister for the Environment and Heritage. Can the minister confirm that when he announced the $3.2 million in new funding to save the orange-bellied parrot, it was listed on his department’s website as one of the 145 endangered or critically endangered animals? Is this why the minister yesterday upgraded the status of the orange-bellied parrot to ‘critically endangered’? Even after this change, aren’t there still 16 other animals assessed under the law as also being critically endangered? Will the minister now spend $3.2 million on protecting each of the other 16 critically endangered species, including the yellow chat, Gilbert’s potoroo, and the hairy marron? Why does the minister’s special interest in critically endangered species stop at the orange-bellied parrot?

Government Senators:

Government senators interjecting—

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senators on my right will come to order.

Ian Campbell (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Heritage) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is appropriate to get a question about threatened species at this time. The Threatened Species Scientific Committee advised me two days ago that the orange-bellied parrot should, in fact, be upgraded to critically endangered. Most Australians know that the orange-bellied parrot has 50 breeding pairs left in the world. If you read the Victorian department of the environment’s website you will see that that department of the Victorian government and Senator Carr’s comrades in Victoria regard it as being at least as endangered as the Siberian tiger or the panda bear.

This particular upgrading was done on the advice of the Threatened Species Scientific Committee. The members of that committee recommended the upgrading to ‘critically endangered’, which most people who understand and care about Australian threatened species would welcome and endorse, as most of the major conservation groups in Australia have done. That committee is chaired by Associate Professor Bob Beeton from the University of Queensland, and comprises Mr Guy Fitzhardinge from New South Wales; Professor Gordon Grigg from Queensland; Dr Graham Harris from Tasmania; Associate Professor Peter Harrison, who is Director of Marine Studies at the Southern Cross University; Professor Bob Kearney, Emeritus Professor of Fisheries at the University of Canberra; Dr Libby Mattiske from Western Australia, who is an expert in endangered species; Dr Rosemary Purdie from the ACT; Dr Andrea Taylor from Victoria; and Dr John Woinarski from the Northern Territory. They made the recommendation to upgrade this species to ‘critically endangered’.

Under the Commonwealth’s world-leading and world-recognised environment law, the Commonwealth lists species, depending on their endangerment. We make reference to those in relation to decisions we make on environmental approvals that cut across federal government issues and national environmentally significant issues. So the threatened species list is very important.

This government has done more than any government in the history of Australia to rebuild habitat and to put in place recovery plans for a whole range of species and for the top 17 species that are listed on the critically endangered list, which were of course joined overnight by not only the orange-bellied parrot but also a unique and critically endangered species of bat found on Christmas Island. We have put money into the biggest environmental rescue package in Australian history, and that is the Natural Heritage Trust. One of the very important programs that restores habitat is the National Reserve System, which was put in place to build a comprehensive and adequate reserve system across Australia for biodiversity, particularly to build habitat. The sum of $80 million has been invested in that program over the past 10 years. Investment was virtually nonexistent under the previous Labor government. The program has built up a conservation reserve of over 240 properties—21 million hectares of land across Australia, nearly 10 per cent of the Australian landmass, reserved for the conservation of Australian wildlife and, particularly, to build habitat for critically endangered species. So we are spending tens of millions of dollars a year to look after Australia’s native wildlife and this particular species, for which I announced $3.2 million— (Time expired)

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Housing and Urban Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I ask the minister: what action has he taken, on top of the $3.2 million he is providing for the orange-bellied parrot, for the 16 other animals assessed under the law as being critically endangered? Why is it, Minister, that since you took an active interest in the orange-bellied parrot its survival chances have dramatically declined to the point where it has now become critically endangered? Is this because the minister is still looking for an environmental cover for his blatant political decisions to veto the Bald Hills wind farm? When will the minister start taking a balanced approach rather than a marginal seats approach to guiding his decisions on threatened species?

Ian Campbell (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Heritage) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will try and speak more slowly and use shorter words to help Senator Carr get through this. The decision to upgrade this species, which has 50 breeding pairs left in the world, to critically endangered status was taken on the explicit advice of the Threatened Species Scientific Committee. Senator Carr’s attack on me is nothing other than an attack on these eminent Australians who serve the Commonwealth of Australia with distinction and advise us about unique Australian wildlife. I table the list of members of the Threatened Species Scientific Committee.