Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, the world's highest rated World Heritage wilderness, continues to be mistreated, disrespected, privatised and developed, it could join the Great Barrier Reef with a UNESCO recommendation for an 'in danger' listing. Both these unique, magnificent, enchanting wonders of our natural world are equally affected and suffering from the ravages of global warming, under the watch of this climate-denying government.

On the same day UNESCO declared the Great Barrier Reef in danger—yesterday—the committee also delivered a hefty blow to the Tasmanian Liberal government's dodgy expression-of-interest process for the development of the World Heritage area. While our environment minister, in extraordinary displays of dummy spitting and tantrums in the last couple of days, has claimed that she was blindsided by UNESCO's 'in danger' listing, there is going to be no excuse now that she's been put on notice by UNESCO for her and her government's ignorance on what has been happening in the Tasmanian World Heritage area.

In recent days, just looking at the significant ramping up of rhetoric against UNESCO, it seems this government will go to extreme lengths to shun the IUCN recommendation process and the World Heritage 'in danger' process. This is because UNESCO has been one of the only organisations capable of holding our federal government to account and embarrassing them on the international stage for their blatant disrespect of what makes our country and, indeed, our world so special.

The Tasmanian World Heritage area meets every single natural criteria for World Heritage listing. It is the tied leader for satisfying the most criteria possible—seven out of 10. It shares the lead with Mt Tian Shan in China for its World Heritage values. But, in a mind-blowing display of audacity, that didn't stop this federal government from attempting to delist 74,000 hectares of this Tasmanian World Heritage area for logging. This is some of the most magnificent, carbon-rich mixed species rainforest on the planet. That was before UNESCO called the state government out and humiliated them.

UNESCO has been raising concerns about the lack of strict criteria underpinning the state government's dodgy expression-of-interest process for tourism developments inside the Tasmania World Heritage area since 2016. It's clear the World Heritage Committee's concerns about the EOI process have not been eased by the Tasmanian government's tourism master plan, which once again UNESCO essentially had to hassle the Tasmanian government to deliver—in fact, far from it. They had to call on the state government to speed up the plan, which, despite first being requested in 2015, was only released just last month. It's the blatant mismanagement of our wild places like this that has now forced UNESCO to request any development that impacts upon the Tasmanian World Heritage area's outstanding universal values be referred to them for review. That's a rebuke.

Our government, it seems, simply cannot be trusted. It's simply not acceptable for the Liberal Party and the National Party, at both the state and the federal level, to pay lip service to UNESCO's demands. While we may be the custodian and the manager, these areas are owned by all the people on this planet. It's not acceptable for the government to push on with exploiting these precious areas simply for a few developers—a few special interests—to profit from and make a buck. Tasmania's wilderness areas are globally significant and need the highest level of protection from threats such as inappropriate tourism development. The Greens will continue to stand in the Australian Senate and in the Tasmanian parliament and fight for the communities that don't want to see these areas ruined and exploited.