Additional Comments from Coalition Senators

1.1The Coalition does not support the passage of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Save the Koala) Bill 2021 (the bill). In short, we therefore agree with the recommendation of the Majority Report of this inquiry.

1.2As was reflected in each of the speeches by Coalition Senators in the Second Reading debate, there are a number of reasons for this approach.

1.3Primarily, it is our view that the content of this bill is unbalanced and misdirected.

1.4Naturally, we agree that caring for the wellbeing of koalas is a noble and important aim. The koala is an iconic Australian species, and it is true that its survival is currently under serious threat in some parts of the country.

1.5However, there are more effective means to aid the survival of these animals than the ones that are contained in this bill.

1.6We would argue that a very practical demonstration of that point was in evidence during the years of Federal Coalition government between 2013 and 2022—when we delivered a range of practical measures and funding commitments specifically for the protection of koalas. Those funding commitments totalled many tens of millions of dollars.[1]

1.7In our view, the 'National Recovery Plan for the Koala’ that we devised in March 2022 also continues to provide the best roadmap to success in the management of koalas across Australia.[2]

1.8By contrast, the Australian Greens have chosen—through this bill—to pursue an emotive approach with no real prospect of practical or holistic success. At the heart of the bill is the ill-advised, and blunt, introduction of a moratorium on the clearing of koala habitat.

1.9In a sadly all-too-predictable way, the Greens have also used the bill to launch another of their attacks on Australia’s forestry industries—by again demanding that the longstanding and highly-effective exemption of Regional Forest Agreements from the requirements of the EPBC Act be revoked.

1.10There are innumerable studies, and there is a very wide range of evidence, that show that the Greens’ frequent attempts to paint Australian forestry as wicked, and a pre-eminent contributor to koala population declines, are quite wrong.

1.11We do not doubt the commitment or passion of the Greens to most of their causes, including to the stance that is embodied in this bill. By definition, however, they are not embarking on a sensible, evidence-based or logical way forward—or, indeed, even a consistent one.

1.12Moreover, the content of the bill sets the welfare of koalas in complete isolation. It imagines direct habitat clearing, principally through property construction and forestry activity, to be the major factor behind the rise and fall of koala numbers.

1.13It is true that land clearing is a serious problem for habitat preservation in Australia. Indeed, this challenge is even now being reflected in growing unease and problems between the Albanese Government and State Labor governments.There is, for example, an obvious tension between Federal Labor’s stated commitment to the United Nations’ 30-by-30 land targets and the ongoing actions of State Labor in rapidly and heavily clearing land for new housing projects.

1.14Quite ironically, though, there has been absolutely no mention in the content of the Greens’ bill, Explanatory Memorandum and speeches of the dangerous and rapidly-growing impact on koala habitat of the swathes of land now being cleared in Australia to accommodate wind turbines, solar panels and transmission lines.

1.15In turn, the Greens’ bill also fundamentally fails to recognise or address a host of other factors that are relevant to this inquiry. As part of this, it does not engage with the obvious practical reality that there are many difficult (and frequently-competing) challenges and questions about how we best manage land in Australia.

1.16Within the Coalition, we do not share many of the assertions that have been made, and premises that have been cited, by the Greens in their attempts to publicise and build support for the bill.

1.17We should add that we also disagree with the words on page 15 of the Majority Report, where the claim is made that ’stronger outcomes will be achieved via the (Albanese Government’s) broader EPBC Act reforms, and that these should be effectively implemented rather than measures aimed at protecting a single species‘.

1.18To assert without qualification that these ‘reforms’ will deliver stronger outcomes is very ambitious and hopeful, given the stark failure of the Labor Party to even deliver on their very commitment to overhaul the EPBC Act. On multiple occasions, their Environment Minister (the Hon Tanya Plibersek MP) and her department have promised that these new laws would be finalised by the end of 2023. Not only has this not happened but, humiliatingly, it is obvious that the new legislation will not be ready for many more months—and may not even be in operation by the time of the next Federal election.

1.19For a far more accurate and sober reflection on the current and future state of play in koala management in Australia, we would instead direct readers to the words of Liberal Senator for South Australia, Senator the Hon David Fawcett.He said, in his Second Reading speech of 22 February 2021, that ’the substance of this bill [would] actually prevent...[and doesn’t] allow the science for any particular case to be considered...‘ where they intersect with potential koala habitat.[3]

1.20Senator Fawcett also observed that—even in relation to an activity like an individual’s or an organisation’s investment in a tree plantation that might potentially attract koalas—this bill would be likely to prohibit any subsequent harvesting of trees at that location.

1.21As has long been the case, it also remains the Coalition’s view that balanced approaches should be brought to the intersection of the economy and the environment, including in respect of koala management.

1.22As Senator the Hon Jonathon Duniam, the Shadow Environment Minister and Liberal Senator for Tasmania, said in his Second Reading speech on 26 October 2022:

To save an animal is important, but to shut down industries and to remove capacity for land use, including finding land to build the million homes that this government wants to build and that Australians so desperately need, I think, is short-sighted and, indeed, something that will have devastating impact…there are better ways to achieve the outcomes [the Greens seek] to achieve: through science, through balance and through consultation with the community.[4]

1.23In effect, this bill has been before the Parliament for nearly three years. Yet, throughout that time, the Greens have been manifestly unable to mount a compelling case as to why it should supersede any of the wide range of koala-related policies, laws and programs that already exist around the country.

1.24Nor have they been able to disprove or overturn the results of many decades of research that have consistently highlighted that the process of safeguarding koalas necessarily requires a multi-faceted, holistic and integrated approach.

1.25It is our considered view that, if this bill was ever to be passed, it would provoke more harm than good.

1.26Rather than supporting legislation of this kind, governments should continue to adopt and implement a variety of policy ideas and measures, and legislation, to help protect koalas.

1.27These magnificent animals do not deserve to be the subject, at a political level, of approaches that are motivated in the first instance by sectional, ideological priorities. Instead, they should be the beneficiaries of an approach that is practical, based on genuine evidence, and aims to best collectively serve the interests of all species and all Australians.

Footnotes

[1]The Hon Sussan Ley MP, Former Minister for the Environment, ‘Increased Protection for Koalas’, Media Release, 11 February 2022.

[2]The Hon Sussan Ley MP, Former Minister for the Environment, ‘'National Koala Recovery Plan Released', Media Release, 7 April 2022.

[3]Senator the Hon David Fawcett, Senate Hansard, 22 February 2021, p. 1074.

[4]Senator the Hon Jonathon Duniam, Senate Hansard, 26 October 2022, p. 1547.