National Threatened Species Day

The majority voted against a motion that "urges the Government to immediately develop and implement legislation that does protect threatened species".

Motion text

That, on National Threatened Species Day, the Senate—

(a) recognises that habitat destruction and fragmentation together with alien invasive species exacerbated by global warming are the main drivers of species extinction globally;

(b) notes that:

(i) since 1788, 52 plants and 55 animal species have gone to extinction in Australia including the Thylacine, which was last seen in Tasmania 70 years ago today, and

(ii) in 2006 there are 1 243 plants, 91 mammals, 107 birds, 52 reptiles, 27 frogs, 39 fishes and 22 invertebrates listed as either critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable or conservation dependent in Australia;

(c) expresses concern that only 21 per cent of nationally-listed threatened species have recovery plans, none of which any longer have implementation schedules or life of the project funding plans;

(d) calls on the Government to recognise that protection of threatened species under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 has failed and does not fulfil Australia’s obligations to protect threatened species under the Convention on Biological Diversity; and

(e) urges the Government to immediately develop and implement legislation that does protect threatened species.