Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm delighted to have been asked to read out the speeches of several intelligent, passionate and articulate young people from Queensland as part of the Raise our Voice in Parliament campaign. Today I'm reading out a speech from Ella Sheahan. Ella says:

Hi, my name is Ella Sheahan. I'm 15 years old and a year 10 student at Earnshaw State College in the Lilley electorate in Brisbane.

Put yourself in the shoes, or rather the feathers, of a migratory shorebird where you've just battled gale force winds and rain flying 12,000 gruelling kilometres in search of a safe resting place and habitat only to return and find something horrific—a townhouse development.

This is the sad reality for many critically endangered birds, and we are watching the mass extinction unfold right in front of us, just one site being the much loved Toondah Harbour wetlands in Cleveland.

Why are we letting this happen to our ancient rainforest, bush and wetlands? Please answer the calls and crows of our wildlife and future generations. Australia's ecosystems are disappearing from the face of our Earth. Why don't we pull the parachute? There is no safety net below. In the time it has taken for me to read this speech alone, 50 football fields worth of precious forests have been flattened—destroyed; 20 hectares of uniquely biodiverse ecosystems—destroyed; 17,000 tons of carbon stores—destroyed.

We need to get to the root of the problem. You have all the power. You can be the Lorax who speaks for the trees and my generation. You can stop us all from toppling over the edge. It will take time, but together we can use our intellect to resurrect and redirect our future.

Thanks, Ella.