Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025, National Environmental Protection Agency Bill 2025, Environment Information Australia Bill 2025, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Customs Charges Imposition) Bill 2025, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Excise Charges Imposition) Bill 2025, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (General Charges Imposition) Bill 2025, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Restoration Charge Imposition) Bill 2025

Senator CADELL (New South Wales) (17:36): The specific perverse outcomes I want to get to are like the case of Pilliga. Pilliga had a population of, I think, 15,000 koalas. It had river gums and ironbarks, and it also had logging in it, with cypress.

It was locked up. The fuel load increased, and there were fires in 2017-18. The recovery saw the non-native species overtake the gums and the koala habitat.

The population is now estimated to be somewhere in the low hundreds—50 to 200. Under these EPBC acts, if they have to go through approvals, is the consequence of not acting taken into account for back-burns to manage thinning in these cases?