Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Wong representing the environment minister. My question is about to government's zero extinctions pledge. Two weeks ago in Senate estimates, Dr Helene Marsh, the Chair of the Threatened Species Scientific Committee, said she'd written to Minister Plibersek with concerns about the endangered Tasmanian maugean skate after new scientific information revealed population levels had halved in the past 10 years and scientists warned the species was one extreme weather event way from extinction. She also said the committee would be meeting within a fortnight, and she would be recommending the species conservation status be uplifted to critically endangered. Can the minister confirm the skate's conservation advice has now been upgraded to critically endangered?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you ,Senator Whish-Wilson, for the question. I appreciate, also, that we had some opportunity to get some briefing, which I will add to if it's insufficient. I understand that the Threatened Species Scientific Committee did meet last week in relation to the maugean skate. I am also advised that the committee have yet to provide the minister with a formal recommendation to change the status of the skate. I'm advised that the primary threat to the maugean skate is reduced water quality in Macquarie Harbour, particularly decreased levels of dissolved oxygen. Whilst the committee is considering this matter in order to be able to determine whether it will recommend and what the content of a formal recommendation to change the status of the skate to the minister would be, I'm advised that in the meantime there is action underway. The federal and Tasmanian governments are working with experts and stakeholders to update the existing conservation advice for the species, to host a series of workshops to better understand the threats and critical conservation actions for the maugean skate, to convene a recovery team and to identify funding for conservation actions. I'm also advised there is work underway to identify possible funding for emergency research. There has already been in excess of $500,000 invested from the federal government for priority maugean skate recovery.

Obviously, we are in a situation where under the previous government this portfolio was substantially neglected. Ms Plibersek has made clear the importance of protecting more of what is precious and repairing more of what is damaged. (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Whish-Wilson, a first supplementary question?

Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Wong has answered some of my second question. At Senate estimates, the Threatened Species Commissioner, Dr Fiona Fraser, also explained there are numerous pressures impacting and risking the skate, including industrial salmon farming. She said that Minister Plibersek was writing to her state counterparts in Tasmania calling for an extreme intervention to prevent the possible extinction of this skate. What is this extreme intervention? Will it include getting salmon farms out of Macquarie Harbour?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I can confirm that the minister has written to the Tasmanian government and has received a response from the Tasmanian minister. I'm advised that Ms Plibersek's letter raised issues such as water quality in Macquarie Harbour. She noted that salmon farming and hydroelectric industries are regulated by the Tasmanian government, and she urged Tasmanian Minister Jaensch—is that correct?—to work with industry on urgent interventions to rapidly reduce nitrogen outputs and to improve oxygen levels in the harbour.

The point I was making at the conclusion of my answer to the primary question was a broader point about the neglect and mismanagement by those opposite and the priority that Ms Plibersek, as minister, is making to protect more of what is precious, repairing more of what is damaged and managing nature better for our children and our grandchildren.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Whish-Wilson, a second supplementary?

Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The scientists who discovered the maugean skate dubbed it the 'thylacine of the sea' nearly 30 years ago. These risks and pressures have been well-known to us all for well over a decade now. The Albanese government is committed to a zero extinctions pledge. Is this commitment now at risk given the dire predicament of the maugean skate, and will your government do everything in its power to prevent an extinction on our watch?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the minister has made clear, we do not accept extinctions as inevitable, which was the position and the passivity that was too often taken by those opposite. Of course, it is a priority to do what we can to better understand threats to species and use the most up-to-date advice to protect them.

The government's Threatened Species Action Plan sets ambitious targets, including preventing new extinctions in this country, and the plan includes the maugean skate as a priority species. In addition to the $224.5 million in the Saving Native Species Program, the senator may recall the May budget included in excess of $400 million, almost $440 million, through the Natural Heritage Trust, the doubling of funding for national parks and increased funding for urban rivers.