Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate calls on the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts (Mr Garrett) to prevent any deliberate action which would increase the prospect of Australia’s swift parrot going to extinction.

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—The government does not support this motion, because it seriously undermines the role of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts in protecting an endangered species such as the swift parrot. Under the EPBC Act the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts can do much more than prevent any deliberate actions which would increase the prospect of the swift parrot going to extinction. Under the EPBC Act the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts may seek or adopt and implement recovery plans for threatened fauna such as the swift parrot. The aim of a recovery plan is to maximise the long-term survival in the wild of a threatened species. Recovery plans set out the research and management actions necessary to stop the decline of and support the recovery of listed threatened species. Recovery plans state what must be done to protect and restore important populations of threatened species and habitat as well as state how to manage threatened species processes. Recovery plans achieve this aim by providing a planned and logical framework to key interest groups and responsible government agencies to coordinate their work to improve the plight of threatened species and ecological communities. A recovery plan for the swift parrot is in place.

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I guess that statement was preparatory to the Labor Party voting against its minister using the very powers that Senator Ludwig has outlined. I can give a commitment to the Senate that, if this motion to call on the minister to use powers—which Senator Ludwig just said he has—to prevent any deliberate action which would damage the swift parrot’s chances of escaping extinction does not pass, I will give notice of the motion tomorrow, enumerating all the things the government said that the minister can do to protect this endangered parrot. It is the fastest parrot on the face of the planet. This parrot should be protected and the minister should use his powers to prevent any deliberate harm. I will give a commitment to bring back the government’s own words in a motion tomorrow if the government votes against this motion today.

Question put:

That the motion (Senator Bob Brown’s) be agreed to.