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

You might have missed a notable event this month: Australia Post issued a stamp series featuring three freshwater crayfish: Astacopsis gouldi, or the Tasmanian Giant Freshwater Crayfish, which is the biggest freshwater invertebrate in the world; Euastacus sulcatus, the bright blue Lamington crayfish that roams forest floors across the mountains of northern New South Wales and southern Queensland; and Cherax cainii, the WA Smooth Marron.

It is fantastic to have this focus on these amazing creatures, particularly the Tasmanian Giant Freshwater Crayfish and the Lamington crayfish, because it's an opportunity to raise the profile of not just how special they are but also how threatened they are. Both these crayfish are threatened by logging. Astacopsis gouldi is the poster cray for the campaign to protect the forests of Northern Tasmania from logging. They live in rivers and creeks in forested areas, and they need to have crystal-clear water, uncontaminated by the sediment that comes from land clearing and logging. This giant crayfish can live to 60 years old and grow to the size of a medium dog. It's classed as 'endangered' by the IUCN, having been wiped out in many catchments where they'd previously lived because of siltation which has clogged up the gaps between the rocks and the pebbles in the creek beds where they live and breed, yet logging is still planned. That will knock off many more of these incredible animals.

How about the Lamington crayfish? It is much the same. Scientists who have studied them say:

The highly fragmented populations are susceptible to localized impacts, including bushfires, forest management practices, habitat destruction and over exploitation by collectors.

Forest management practices? Read: destructive logging. But these amazing animals are now featured on our stamps, so surely that should bring a change of heart here in Canberra, New South Wales and Tasmania? Sadly, no. The Regional Forest Agreements, our destructive logging laws that sanction this logging in Tasmania and New South Wales, have been rolled over for another 20 years, when all the science, all the rational assessment and all the communities that love our forests and wildlife say that they should be scrapped. It's not just the crayfish that are affected. Over the last 20 years our logging laws have allowed logging that's driven species, including koalas, quolls and gliders, closer to the brink of extinction. This logging not only pushes wildlife towards extinction but lowers forest carbon stores and reduces the forests' ability to soak up carbon. Logging impacts water supplies. It destroys the capacity and ability of these forests to be the centre of recreation and tourism in regional Australia and it destroys the jobs that go with that.

Plus, the new laws in New South Wales will permit the government to implement new logging rules that will dramatically intensify logging, including a new intensive harvesting zone, a reduction in stream buffers and further declines in hollow-bearing trees, and these new laws will give them the ability to log trees up to 1.6 metres in diameter. What's even worse is that the New South Wales government is also proposing to remap and rezone forests that have been protected as old growth forests up until now. So say goodbye to the animals in this forests and weep.

But what makes me weep the most is that logging our native forests is not needed for wood production. Eighty-eight per cent of timber production in Australia comes from plantations, and this percentage is growing. The vast majority of wood that comes from our native forest logging ends up as woodchips for paper and low-value uses, such as tomato stakes and pallets.

I want to let you know something: Australia is not happy with this. Australians want to see our precious animals protected, our water supplies protected, our precious places for nature walks and scenic drives protected, the places where we are inspired by beauty protected. The community has been campaigning against native forest logging for decades and we will continue. We won't be silenced by big corporate bullyboys and the acolytes in the Liberal, National and Labor parties. Extinction is a political choice. Having giant freshwater crayfish and lamington crayfish featured on our stamps surely should mean something. So I call on everyone to listen to what's in the post and stamp out—

Wendy Askew (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Rice. Senator Sheldon.