15th Feb 2021, 5:36 PM – Senate Motions - Forestry - Environmental protection

The majority voted against part (a) of a motion introduced by SA Senator Sarah Hanson-Young (Greens), which means it failed.

Note that while Queensland Senator Malcolm Roberts (One Nation) appeared to vote "yes" on this division, that was done by mistake and he subsequently said that he made a mistake and that "I want it noted that I oppose part (a) of the motion."

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) native forest logging in Tasmania continues to destroy nature, threatened species, and our climate,

(ii) last year the Bob Brown Foundation (BBF) lodged a challenge against the Commonwealth Government, Tasmanian government, and Sustainable Timber Tasmania in the Federal Court arguing Tasmania's Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) contradicted the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the EPBC Act) by not protecting endangered species such as the Swift Parrot, and was therefore invalid,

(iii) on 3 February 2021 the Federal Court ruled against BBF, finding Tasmania's RFA is valid, and

(iv) this ruling vindicates the finding by the independent review of the EPBC Act (the Samuel Review) that 'the EPBC Act is ineffective ... does not enable the Commonwealth to effectively protect environmental matters that are important for the nation ... [and] is not fit to address current or future environmental challenges'; ...