Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Ian Campbell, the Minister for the Environment and Heritage, and relates to the endangered spotted handfish—a small, colourful fish that more commonly walks on its fins rather than swims—of which there are fewer than 1,000 adult fish remaining in the wild. In view of the threat outlined in the Commonwealth’s own recovery plan—namely siltation of key estuaries caused by land clearing and coastal development, particularly those that involve dredging—will he inform the Walker Corporation, proponents of a canal development, a controlled action, at Ralphs Bay in Tasmania, that the Commonwealth will rule out any dredging at the proposed site, consistent with the recovery plan and the Derwent Estuary Water Quality Improvement Plan for Heavy Metals?