Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes:

(i) that in April 2015, the Minister for the Environment up-listed Victoria’s animal emblem, the Leadbeater’s Possum, to critically endangered which is one category level prior to becoming extinct in the wild,

(ii) the ‘Threatened Species Strategy Action Plan 2015-16—20 mammals by 2020’ released by the Government on 16 July 2015 states that emergency intervention is required for this species, and

(iii) the scientific evidence states that the main threats to the Leadbeater’s Possum habitat are native forest logging and fire, and that fire risk is exacerbated by logging activity; and

(b) calls on the Government to:

(i) take urgent action to immediately protect the Leadbeater’s Possum from extinction, including:

(a) immediately listing the montane ash forests of the Victorian Central Highlands on the Register of Critical Habitat, and

(b) working with the Victorian Government to implement an immediate moratorium on logging in the native forests of Victorian Central Highlands, while the taskforce considering the future of logging in these forests carries out its investigations, and

(ii) scrap the Regional Forest Agreement which entrenches industrial scale clear fell logging in these forests.

Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As you know, Leadbeater's possum is Victoria's animal emblem. It is important not to confuse it with Victoria's marine faunal emblem, the weedy seadragon, or Victoria's bird emblem, the helmeted honeyeater. I can share with colleagues that Minister Hunt is already taking emergency action to protect Leadbeater's possum. On 16 July 2015 he launched Australia's first threatened species strategy, which set out specific actions and targets to turn around the decline of 20 mammals, including Leadbeater's possum, by 2020. We have committed over $110 million towards threatened species conservation, including to help Leadbeater's possum. The government looks forward to continuing to work with the Victorian government on a new recovery plan for Leadbeater's possum that will detail further actions to turn around the species's decline. The government supports regional forest agreements, as they balance the environmental, social and economic objectives for native forest management.

Question negatived.