John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes, with concern, the decision of the Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (Mr Burke) to assess under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, the decision of the Victorian Government to allow the grazing of cattle in the Alpine National Park; and

(b)

further notes the undisputed evidence that cattle grazing in national parks reduces fuel load and reduces the risk and severity of bushfire.

I seek leave to make a short statement.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for two minutes.

John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do not know when the Greens are going to get some common sense about bushfires and the level of fuel on the ground. The coalition government of Victoria has put 400 head of cattle into this region to reduce fuel levels on the ground. Once you get more than five tonnes per hectare of fuel—grass, twigs under six millimetres—and you get a 40 degree day and a 50 kilometre an hour wind, a fire will burn totally out of control. We saw that in the Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria. Those fires put 90 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. They were totally out of control. The seriousness of those fires was caused by mismanagement of the environment.

I do not know how many Greens have ever been to a bushfire. I went to plenty in my young days living in South Australia. Here is a case where the government of Victoria is reducing the fuel levels to control that country, and the Greens are saying you cannot have hard-hoofed animals in those areas. There are hundreds of thousands of deer, there are numerous wild pigs and brumbies, thousands of feral goats, and what do we have? We have Minister Burke driving in there in a four-wheel-drive in wet conditions and digging the country up but saying you cannot run cattle there. That is outrageous and that is why this motion should be supported.

If we are going to lock up country and leave it, it is going to burn, it is going to destroy the environment, it is going to kill the animals and it is going to destroy the timber. And the Greens call this conservation. I call it stupidity. I urge support for this motion.

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I seek leave to make a short statement.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted—but there are only 40 seconds before two o’clock.

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Our choice here is between Senator Williams’s tirade and the science. We will be voting with the science.

Question put.

That the motion (Senator Williams’s) be agreed to.