Senator BOB BROWN (Leader of the Australian Greens) (4:01 PM) —I move—

   That the Senate—

(a)   notes the call by Griffith University Professor Angela Arthington, and by world fish expert Professor Gene Helfman of the Institute of Ecology at the University of Georgia, United States of America, for Australia to avoid the Traveston Crossing Dam in Queensland in order to protect the endangered Australian lungfish;

(b)   accepts that the Mary River is the single most vital remaining spawning ground and nursery for the lungfish, and for the Mary River cod and Mary River turtle; and

(c)   calls on the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts (Mr Garrett) to explain to the Senate how these spawning grounds and nurseries could be protected if the dam were built.

Question agreed to.