Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Let's be perfectly clear about this fact; if the parliament legislates today and tomorrow to give exemptions from the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to projects and industries, it will be one of the most egregious acts of environmental vandalism this parliament has ever been responsible for. In fact, I would say it would be second only to the Abbott government removing the price on carbon in late 2013. The enormity of what this parliament is doing here cannot be underestimated. This country already has weak environmental laws, and, if the parliament passes this bill, they will be even weaker, because it means that, starting with the salmon industry and Macquarie Harbour on the West Coast of Tasmania but extending to perhaps hundreds of projects that were given the go-ahead more than five years ago and which have been in operation ever since on a continual basis, none of them can ever be reviewed by any future environment minister or any future government. For the Prime Minister to come in here in question time today, to ridicule the crossbench and to claim that you must vote for the Labor Party if you care about the environment is just absolutely ridiculous! Is the member for Grayndler the Prime Minister or the 'Propaganda Minister'? It was just patent nonsense, and it disappoints me because the member for Grayndler is better than that. I know he's much better than that, and he diminishes himself when he comes in here and says such absolute nonsense.

The severity of what this parliament is in the process of doing cannot be underestimated. It will be a complete failure of governance. What happened, for heaven's sake, to the promise by the Labor party in the lead up to the last election that, if elected, it would strengthen our environmental framework? It turned out to be just a con job. What about public opinion? What about the fact that the vast majority of Tasmanians, when polled, want the salmon industry kicked out of Macquarie Harbour because of the environmental damage it's doing and the fact that it has helped take the maugean skate to the edge of extinction. Since when are less than 100 jobs in Strahan as important as they are? Since when are those jobs more valuable than dealing with the extinction crisis? Of course, we must do everything in our power to deal with the extinction crisis. For this parliament to be in the process of legislating killing off one of the planet's most prehistoric species—to knowingly do it with legislation like this—can't be described as anything less than egregious environmental vandalism.

What about the groundswell of dissent within the ALP? You can't tell me there are not a lot of good hearted, intelligent ALP backbenchers who are in barely silenced revolt at the moment. What about them? It's a matter for the Labor Party, but it does call into question the integrity of the Labor Party when it's putting Tassal, Huon and Petuna ahead of the grassroots membership of that party.

What about the environment minister? I've got a lot of respect for the current environment minister, and none of my comments are directed at the member for Sydney. In fact, I feel a certain sympathy for the member for Sydney because she's been so ruthlessly sidelined and was made to come in here and read out that speech that she read out earlier today. You could just look at the expression on her face. It was like she was talking while simultaneously sucking on the most bitter lemon this country has ever produced. That is no way to treat a frontbencher.

What about the industry itself? It's a curious thing that the people who are trying to do, in their minds, the right thing by the salmon industry by effectively carving it out from the EPBC Act—what they're actually doing is hastening the demise of the industry, and I'll tell you why. The salmon industry in Tasmania is an important economic driver. It is a significant employer, and I actually support it. I actually want it to survive and achieve its full potential. But it will only achieve that potential if it is transparent, if it's very carefully regulated and if it's put on a genuinely sustainable footing. Leaving it in Macquarie Harbour to kill off maugean skate is not putting it on a sustainable footing. What it's doing is just trashing the industry's reputation even further and hastening its demise. If anyone comes in here later today to vote for this bill and claims they're a friend of the salmon industry, they're the complete opposite, because, one day, the salmon industry will be on its knees, and the people who support this bill will be the ones to blame.

Let me talk about the maugean skate for a moment longer, and I proudly wear a little decoration of the maugean skate on my lapel. It is one of the most historic species on the planet. It is a remarkable creature. It survived for millions of years—millions of years. So what does it make of all this talk about us dealing with the extinction crisis? When we come in here and we're going to vote on this, seemingly the government, maybe with the opposition—hopefully they will see sense and oppose it—are going to knowingly vote to make one of the oldest species on the planet extinct. It's just breathtaking. It's absolutely breathtaking. It makes a complete mockery of everything that people say when they're wringing their hands and talking about the environment and how good they are on the environment, saying, 'If you care about the environment, you've got to vote for the Labor Party.'

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