David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, I was hoping you could provide some explanation for why a series of animal welfare groups, particularly those doing rehoming of wildlife and those doing advocacy for wildlife, have been excluded from having DGR status? I do this because I'm probably not the only member of the chamber and downstairs who, just earlier today, saw the extraordinary Matilda, an animal hospital truck, out the front. I see Senator Collins. Did you get to nurse a baby wombat outside in the Matilda hospital? It's extraordinary. It'll be there tomorrow. You can go and nurse a baby wombat as part of the extraordinary work that Wildlife Recovery Australia has been doing to help injured wildlife, to help wildlife carers. I'd urge anyone who hasn't been down there to visit the truck. Maybe, Senator Duniam, you'll change your views about the mass shooting of wallabies if you do that. Go down and visit the Matilda animal hospital. If that doesn't fill you with the spirit of protecting Australia's amazing national wildlife—there are two little baby boy wombats and an amazing carer who's been down there raising them from when they were little pink pups.

They've managed to get DGR status for Wildlife Recovery Australia. It cost over $1 million to set up this mobile animal hospital. When you go in, it's extraordinary. There are X-ray machines. There's an operating theatre. There are spaces for nursing and caring. If you want to see the extraordinary nature of Australia's wildlife, you can see this extraordinary X-ray of a fruit bat—the only powered-flight mammals on the planet. They're extraordinary creatures.

I raise this in this debate because not only is that extraordinary out there—I say go and see the Matilda Hospital. They travel around the country. They can go to where there are disasters. If there have been fires or floods, they can go and provide emergency relief for animals. Their daily job is providing emergency support for our wildlife—if they've been hit by trucks, if they've been hit by cars, if turtles get caught up in fishing lines and debris on our coasts or if koalas get run down and attacked by wild dogs. They are extraordinary and they provide that daily relief.

They've got DGR status, so they can actually have a funding method to fund them, and they have the extraordinary generosity of the public. Maybe they could do with some Commonwealth funding, Minister. I tell you what, they could do with some recurrent Commonwealth funding to keep the Matilda hospital up and running and keep it on the road. It's an extraordinary place.

But there are too many animal welfare groups who don't have DGR status because of the narrow requirements for DGR status. If the animal welfare group is just about rehoming wildlife—surely we want groups to be out there rehoming wildlife. If they've recovered a koala that's been burnt in the fires—it goes in, it's been rehomed and nursed back to health. Surely we want those organisations to have DGR status. They are extremely generous, warm hearted members of our community who are out there looking after our wildlife after a disaster or after they've been hit by a car—looking after little wombat pups that were rescued when their mum was hit by car.

I know that there's an amendment that has been circulated. I think it's amendment 3645, which my colleague Senator McKim put, which would widen the DGR status eligibility to include animal welfare organisations and to include those organisations that rehouse our extraordinary native wildlife. I can't work out why the government is resisting that and why we don't value organisations that are out there rehoming wild animals, doing the disaster and crisis emergency response for animals and animal welfare advocacy.

This is a matter that I know many of my Greens colleagues across the country are deeply passionate about, because we see the great work they do. Minister, I suppose the first question is: will the government be supporting amendment 3645? If not, what is your answer to those extraordinary, generous Australians who give their time for these amazing organisations to advocate for our wildlife and to rehome them when they need it?