BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION
92. Hon LYNN MacLAREN to the minister representing the
Minister for Environment:
(1) As today
is the International Day for Biological Diversity, will the minister advise
what the state government is doing to highlight the significance of Western
Australia's biodiversity?
(2) Will the
government report on the status of threatened species in Western Australia?
(3) Has the
status of Carnaby's cockatoos or numbats improved or worsened over the
past five years?
(4) What
action is the government taking to protect threatened species?
(5) Is the
minister aware that the state government of Victoria is being sued by the
Environment Defenders Office of Victoria over a failure to draw up plans for
the survival of threatened species?
Hon
HELEN MORTON replied:
I thank the member for some notice
of the question. The following information has been provided to me by the
Minister for Environment —
(1) The
government has a strong record in biodiversity conservation for Western
Australia. In its first term, it invested $63 million under the Kimberley
science and conservation strategy for a range of biodiversity conservation
initiatives, including fire management, feral animal control and creation of
terrestrial and marine conservation reserves, in addition to initiatives to
assist the conservation of threatened species. In its term of office between
2008 and 2013, the Liberal–National government created the Walpole and
Nornalup Inlets, Camden Sound, Ngari Capes and Eighty Mile Beach Marine Parks,
which conserve biodiversity. In this term of government, it has made
commitments to create Roebuck Bay, Horizontal Falls and North Kimberley marine
parks, including an extension of the Kimberley marine park network to the
Western Australian–Northern Territory border. The creation of new
marine parks will almost treble the marine reserve system from approximately
1.5 million hectares at the time the government first took office in 2008 to
more than five million hectares by the end of its second term. In its first
term, the government released a biodiversity and cultural conservation strategy
for the great western woodlands, and invested $3 million for on-ground
operations. The government has announced as a priority that it will replace the
Wildlife Conservation Act 1950 with a biodiversity conservation act, and will
introduce a bill into Parliament during this term. The proposed biodiversity
conservation act will significantly increase penalties for harming threatened
species and non-threatened species, and provide a modern framework for the
management and recovery of biodiversity in Western Australia.
(2) The
Department of Environment and Conservation regularly publishes the conservation
status of each threatened species. There are over 600 listed threatened
species, and information on the status of each one can be found at DEC's
website. Currently, 240 species are listed as threatened fauna, and 18 species
listed as fauna presumed to be extinct. There are also 413 threatened flora,
and 14 species presumed extinct.
(3)–(4) The
numbat and Carnaby's cockatoo are specially protected under the
Wildlife Conservation Act as specially protected fauna, with International
Union for Conservation of Nature–equivalent status of vulnerable and
endangered respectively. The status of the numbat and Carnaby's
cockatoo has not changed over the past five years. A Carnaby's cockatoo
recovery plan has recently been approved at the state level and has been
released for public comment as part of the commonwealth process for a national
recovery plan. Since 2008–09, the government has invested more than
$9.3 million for the protection and recovery of WA's three black
cockatoo species, and in particular the recovery of Carnaby's cockatoo.
The government has also made a commitment to build a predator-proof fence
within the greater dryandra woodland to create a numbat and woylie sanctuary of
up to 300 hectares, and recover numbats and woylies.
(5) The minister
is not aware of the Victorian Environment Defenders Office action against the
Victorian government.