Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I rise to speak to document 8 listed today, an OPD relating to the Bunbury Outer Ring Road project in Western Australia. This project has been a disaster for our environment. The documents detail terrible management, which has resulted in the death of at least four adult and two joey western ringtail possums, which are, of course, critically endangered species in that area. This species simply cannot afford any more deaths. We know we have to be doing everything we can to protect our critically endangered wildlife, and this road project is killing them.

The clearing of the Gelorup corridor recommenced last Wednesday, despite the fact that a revised plan on how to protect these species is still missing. How is this possibly allowed? How can they continue a project that is killing critically endangered species without making a plan to make sure this doesn't happen again? Under this approval—an approval, I might point out, that was given by the current Minister for the Environment and Water, Tanya Plibersek, and her department in June 2022—the proponent is required to provide an environmental offset plan. Yet, despite clearing having commenced in August this year and recommenced last week, this plan to protect these critically endangered animals is still not available to the public. I might add: this plan also hasn't been provided in response to this order for the production of documents. It's not good enough.

The Federal Court challenge in relation to this project found that the minister's delegate deemed that the plan that did exist, that was put forward, was inappropriate. So where is the new plan, and why on earth has the minister allowed clearing to commence again without having that plan on the table? Without this document we will not even know whether the damage done through land clearing would be sufficiently offset before it's all gone. How can the minister say she wants to halt extinction by 2030 while signing off and allowing these types of devastating animal-killing projects to go ahead? This project has also been a disaster in terms of cost-benefit for the taxpayer and the economy. The costs have already blown out to at least $1.25 billion despite cuts to the scope of the project. This is a disaster economically and environmentally, and it is becoming a political and environmental disaster for this government.

I would like to note that, despite a request for the final independent cost assessment for this project, the associated minister, the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, has yet to provide this detail, despite the deadline having passed. I put the government and the minister on notice today: unless we get this documentation, we will be taking action in this chamber when the time comes. You can't keep approving these types of projects that are devastating the environment, putting our native species at risk and killing our endangered species and not cough up the sheer information that exists. It is not good enough. It is the environment minister's job in this place to protect the environment and to save our wildlife. On this account, she is failing. It's the environment minister's job, and yet, rather than looking after the environment, the environment minister and the infrastructure minister are looking after the road corporation and the big developers—that is who—not the environment and certainly not the poor old western ringtail possum. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.