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Thursday, 18 August 2011
Page: 4812

Senator SIEWERT (Western Australia—Australian Greens Whip) (12:22): I seek leave to make a short statement.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Leave is granted for two minutes.

Senator SIEWERT: The point here is that they have not been following proper process. The government decided that this should be assessed as an uncontrolled action. It should never have been decided to assess it as an uncontrolled action. There are bilbies there. We know there are bilbies there—one adult and three babies. We know they are there, and by refusing to issue a stop-work order the government are saying that it is okay to clear the habitat of a national icon endangered species. That is what the govern­ment are saying. They are going ahead and allowing clearing to happen before this project has completed its strategic assess­ment, before the government have made their decision on heritage listing and before this project has had any environmental assess­ment. How is that proper procedure, may I ask? It isn't. It is not proper assessment.

There are plenty of alternatives for this project. There are plenty of other places where this project could be put. But no, the government of Western Australia and, it appears, the federal government and Wood­side are determined for this project to go on land that has extreme heritage value and high environmental values. This is not carrying out proper process. If the government were concerned about proper process, it would in fact issue a stop-work order, require this area to be assessed and actually assess the information that the community has collected around the existence of bilbies. The govern­ment is saying that it is okay to trash the habitat of another endangered species in this country, and the community is saying that is not acceptable.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Before I put the question, I remind senators of the Procedure Committee report that indicated that this is not the time to be debating. I remind all parties that this is not the time to be making statements; it is the time to deter­mine motions in the manner that we have been doing.

Question put.

The Senate divided. [12:26]

(The Deputy PRESIDENT—Senator Parry)

Question negatived.