Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I'll take that interjection. I will take it. If Senator Duniam thinks this is about social media, he needs to think again. This is quite literally a matter of life and death for huge numbers of people. This is a matter of whether we face a sustainable future for our children and our grandchildren and their children and their grandchildren or whether we don't. For Senator Duniam to try to diminish this by suggesting it's all about some social media platform, frankly, says more about him than it does about me.

He has successfully distracted me, so, in the short time that I have left before we hit the hard marker and commence the votes that will get this legislation through, I want to reflect on the land-clearing provisions in particular. Since the colonisation of this country, land clearing has wrought havoc on our native ecosystems, in particular, the Mulga scrub. The other forest or non-forest vegetation types that existed here under the stewardship of the original inhabitants of this country existed here for many, many tens of thousands of years. When Europeans arrived, that was the death knell for many species. It was the death knell for many ecological communities. Land clearing, under the continuous-use exemption, has devastated so many ecosystems, particularly in regional Australia, in states like Queensland, in states like Western Australia and in states like New South Wales, although not limited to those states, I might add. Ending the continuous-use exemption for land clearing is an extremely significant environmental reform and one that was hard won by the Greens negotiators on this legislation—Senator Hanson-Young and Senator Waters, in particular. They won that and won that by going in and fighting hard for environmental outcomes.

This legislation falls far short of what is actually needed to properly protect Australia's beautiful, globally significant environmental values. I tell you what—it's a big, big step forward from the steaming pile of tosh that Minister Watt first tabled in this parliament a few weeks ago, and it's a significant step forward because of Greens in parliament. I say to people, if you want environmental outcomes, if you want our forests protected and if you want our environment defended and protected and fought for, you need more Greens in this place—in the Senate and in the House of Representatives. It is only through having the Greens in this place that you get the improvement to environmental laws that we're about to vote on today.

The Senate transcript was published up to 1 8 :30. The remainder of the transcript will be published progressively as it is completed.