MPI - Threatened Species 18/3/26

[11.48 a.m.]

Ms BURNET (Clark) - Honourable Speaker, I commend this MPI; it's a really important topic. The date of 7 September is National Threatened Species Day and it commemorates the death of the last thylacine in the Beaumaris Zoo. That is a huge symbol for Tasmania and something we use as a beacon to remember and to work towards making sure we have no further extinctions. It is incumbent on the government to work a lot harder to ensure that the State of the Environment report recommendations are there to protect those species that can't protect themselves. I commend the words from many of the speakers already.

On ABC Four Corners on Monday night, there was a special about the algal bloom and significant concern about species on the coast of South Australia. I think we dodged a bullet when we had that mass marine event in the summer before last where there were so many salmon mortalities. That was localised, and I think the ocean and the government has dodged a bullet for that not happening this summer, because it will happen again. If you saw Four Corners you would have seen the horrendous wash-up of all sorts of species of marine life large and small - dolphins, whales, sharks, but also very small microorganisms, seahorses and so forth. It's devastating to those people who use the beach in South Australia, but it's devastating to those species and it threatens the mere existence of those species. That will happen in Tasmania if we do not act.

Earlier this week, yesterday, the Public Works Committee report on the South Arm/Lauderdale Road was tabled. I did a dissenting report and will let the Greens know that the dissenting report was about trees that will be removed as part of that road works, trees that are habitat for the swift parrot, for foraging and potential nesting, and unfortunately those will be removed because the report has recommended that they be removed for  road widening. That is as you go into the iconic Ralphs Bay. This is a travesty. We have to do better, and the government has to do better when we deliver projects and projects are delivered on behalf of the government.