Firstly, thank you to Senator David Pocock for bringing forward this motion today. So often in this place we debate the funding priorities of other particular programs, but very rarely does the government of the day bring forward a serious piece of legislation that funds our nature protection here in Australia. You only need to look at the percentage of money in our federal budget that is spent on nature protection to understand just how little of a priority it is and has been for successive governments. In fact, federal biodiversity spending remains below 0.1 per cent of our annual budget. Let me say that again: 0.1 per cent of our national budget is what is spent protecting Australia's natural places and our biodiversity. It's not even one per cent. Not even one per cent of our national budget goes to protecting the very environment and places that we hold so dear, which are important to our cultural identity and which are important to our social wellbeing, to our health, to our tourism, to our business, to our economy and to our mental health. Australians are innately connected to our beautiful landscapes, our unique wildlife, our beautiful forests, our coastlines and our beautiful natural beaches and bushland, yet, when it comes to priorities, governments of all persuasions never seem to make it a matter of significance. It's not good enough.

What we have now is a terrible double whammy where Australia's environment is under pressure like never before. We know that habitat destruction is the biggest threat to Australia's wildlife and our native species. What happens when there is habitat destruction—that is, the logging of our native forests, the bulldozing of our beautiful bushland, the trashing of our coastline and beautiful natural beaches? When that part of nature is destroyed, when the habitat of our native species is bulldozed and destroyed, guess who moves in? The invasive species. Whether they are feral animals or invasive plant species, they move in and they take over, and then our native wildlife, our native species and our rich, unique biodiversity are under even more pressure. Not only has the habitat itself been trashed; the ferals move in, and the invasive species spread across the landscape. And who ends up having to deal with this? Of course Australia's environment struggles and chokes under the invasive species that take over destroyed, trashed, logged and bulldozed habitat.

It's Australians and our communities that really suffer. It ends up being our farmers having to deal with invasive species, even when they want the support to be able to restore our natural heritage. It's our Indigenous communities and First Nations people who are left having to deal with the invasive species on their country and land with very little support and help from government. It ends up being left to volunteers around the country, community volunteers who are doing the good work of getting in there with their shovels, forks, gloves and buckets, to try and restore Australia's natural world and natural heritage. They do it with very little if no support from government. Yet, when you hear ministers talk about what makes our country great, they always argue that our beautiful forests, our beautiful beaches and our natural heritage and wildlife are too important to lose. (Time expired)