Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I seek leave to make a short statement on Greens motion No. 1227.

Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The motion is about logging in World Heritage areas and I acknowledge the vote of the chamber in respect of that. But Minister Burke in his nomination of Tasmanian forests as a World Heritage area actually included forests that were still to be logged as part of that process. Even after the nomination was put in on 28 February, in a letter on 30 April this year Minister Burke said:

My officials continue to work closely with the Tasmanian Government and Forestry Tasmania to refine the management boundary for the nominated extensions to the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.

They are still playing with this boundary months after the initial nomination was put in. It shows the complete lack of integrity in the process and, in fact, how it is inconceivable that the World Heritage Commission could actually consider this when nobody has had the opportunity to comment on it because the boundaries are not even set yet.

Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I seek leave to make a short statement.

Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I just want to note for the record that motion No. 1227 called on the Senate to uphold the principle that areas listed as World Heritage should never be logged, and that principle was supported by Labor and the Greens but opposed by the coalition.