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

I'd like to do a special shout-out in the Australian Senate today for a very special young man, Spencer Hitchen. Spencer and his family are in Parliament House today. Spencer's been going on a personal journey for a number of months to learn about the endangered maugean skate, and he came into the Australian parliament today to meet with me and other parliamentarians. Spencer is a young environmentalist and educator who's now got an international following, and I wanted to recognise him and his generation for taking the time to learn about the potential extinction of a species.

In Parliament House today, I'd also like to give a big shout-out to all the community groups that have come here to speak to politicians to tell them not to pass this toxic legislation that will be before the Senate tomorrow to give a special favour to Labor mates in the salmon industry. Environment Tasmania, Neighbours of Fish Farming, the Australian Marine Conservation Society, the Bob Brown Foundation, the Australia Institute—these are the people that we are supposed to represent in this parliament, not the special interests of big, foreign owned, multinational companies in this country that pay no tax and are pushing a species to the brink of extinction.

I'd also like to give a very, very special shout-out to the protesters from the Bob Brown Foundation who protested this legislation in the Marble Foyer today. How sad is it that people are being forced to come and protest because we are not doing the job of representing them in this place? That's what it's come to. The politics of this special favour for the salmon industry that's going to pass through this parliament is as rotten as the salmon that's now washing up on our shores. It is corruption, and it needs to be called out for what it is.