Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move a motion in relation to the response from Minister Littleproud to the Senate resolution of 2 December.

Leave granted.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

This was the response from Minister Littleproud to the Senate resolution of 2 December calling on the Commonwealth government to more effectively plan for koala and animal welfare in natural disaster responses. In the context of bushfires ravaging over 1.5 million hectares of New South Wales forests and the death of between 350 and 1,000 koalas in these fires, the minister's response, frankly, was very high level. It talked about disaster risk guidance and frameworks, which, quite frankly, I cannot see being of any value in saving one koala let alone 1,000.

While that's all we're being offered to save and protect our wildlife, including koalas, we've got the logging industry demanding that they ought to be able to go into national parks with bulldozers and demanding the opportunity to start looting our precious forests before our forests have even had a chance to begin recovery from the fires. And that's before these devastating fires that have destroyed people's lives and communities and wildlife have even finished burning.

What I and the community want to see from the government are some guarantees that they will implement fire disaster responses that will actually protect wildlife. We need a guarantee that this damaging logging, this looting of our forests, after the fires will be prohibited. Environment groups have called for a guarantee from the Victorian government that they will not allow damaging salvage logging in East Gippsland, and in New South Wales a cross-party parliamentary committee has written to the Premier to express their concerns about post-fire logging because of the drastic effect on koala populations.

Professor David Lindenmayer, a renowned expert forest ecologist, has written multiple, independent, peer reviewed studies which show that logging forests after bushfires increases future fire risk and can render the forest uninhabitable for wildlife for decades or even centuries. The science shows that post-fire logging would significantly impair regeneration, yet the industry ignores that. And not only that: we have the timber industry seeking to loot our forests after the fires. It is not even profitable; it's so heavily subsidised.

The truth is that, to protect our forests and our wildlife after fires, we need to let our forests recover, not tear them apart. We know from long-term studies that most burnt areas will recover well if we let them. These recovering trees are absolutely crucial for species that are at great risk, like the gliding possums, and for the healthy regeneration of whole ecosystems, including the wildlife, the soils, the plants and the insects. In contrast, logging operations kill plants that are germinating in the ash on the forest floor, and the animals that have actually survived the fires get killed during these post-fire-looting logging operations.

This government needs to take responsibility for Australia's native forests. They are of national significance. This is a global issue, not just a national issue. We need a commitment to end native-forest logging now, because the protection of our wildlife and the restoration of our forests are of critical importance to all Australians. The bushfire impact so far, and the fire season still stretching ahead of us, shows that business as usual is not possible and mealy-mouthed words from the minister is not enough. I call on this government to act in the interests of these natural systems, to act to support all of our lives, to act so that our kids and our grandkids have a chance to love and appreciate our precious native forests. The government must cut its ties with the logging industry and the fossil fuel industry and put our communities and our environment first. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted.