STATEMENTS BY SENATORS
Senator BARBARA POCOCK (South Australia) (13:02): I rise to speak about the growing threat posed by the H5N1 avian influenza outbreak. This virus has devastated wildlife populations around the world and has caused mass mortality events in seabirds, marine mammals and other wildlife. Globally, we've seen millions of wild animals and tens of thousands of mammals that have died from bird flu, and, now, it has reached Australia, the last continent it had previously spared.
Our native wildlife cannot catch a break. Between the horrors of the devastating algal bloom in South Australia and now the threat of bird flu, our iconic species are facing crisis after crisis. The government's own commissioned risk assessment predicts catastrophic impacts for our native wildlife.
Eighty-seven per cent of Australia's mammals and 45 per cent of our bird species are found nowhere else. We don't truly know what the impacts will be on these very special creatures. The government estimates that close to 400 Australian native bird and mammal species face high to extreme risk from this strain of the flu.
The Invasive Species Council warns that this could be a wildlife disaster on the scale of the Black Summer bushfires. In my home state of South Australia, there have now been at least 265 confirmed positive H5 bird flu detections. South Australians are worried about our native wildlife populations.
We're deeply worried about our beautiful Coorong region—such a sacred place—in South Australia, which is an important breeding sanctuary for pelicans. There's great concern for Kangaroo Island, also such a special place, which is home to many native species, including our precious sea lion population. The mortality rate of elephant seal pups in Argentina's Peninsula Valdes reached 95 per cent in 2023 because of the bird flu.
If bird flu takes hold in this region, it could push some of our native birds and wildlife closer to extinction. South Australia's coastal bird populations have already been devastated by the algal bloom. We cannot afford another ecological catastrophe, and so many South Australians live in fear of it.
Our wildlife is facing an unprecedented crisis. With bird flu rapidly spreading across our country, it is critical that the government prepares for this ecological crisis, as it is set to devastate wildlife. Australia's distance from other countries and lack of migratory ducks and waterbirds from the Northern Hemisphere has given us years to prepare.
The Greens urged the government in September 2024—a while ago—to act immediately to strengthen Australia's preparedness. The government has known this threat was coming for a long time—nearly two years. The question now is whether it has done enough to prepare.
This government needs to back calls from experts and conservation groups for this $200 million two-year boost to wildlife resilience, coastal habitat protection and invasive species control. We call on Minister Watt to deliver a dedicated and urgent $200 million wildlife preparedness package of this kind, to give our native species the best chance of survival.
Over 400 Australians have contacted my office over the past few months voicing their concerns and their support for this $200 million package. This is no time for playing politics or for delay. Our sea lions, our pelicans and our sacred spaces should not be paying the price for government delay when urgent action could help protect them.
We cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of past ecological crises. Federal and state governments must work together to heed the lessons of the algal bloom and move quickly to protect our wildlife while we still have time to halt the speed. If the Albanese government is serious about protecting wildlife, then they must urgently scale up the funding to build wildlife population resilience.
South Australians are asking governments to act. We are asking governments to act to prevent an ecological disaster that we live in fear of and that we have had recent experience with. We can do more.
Let's put the funding where it is needed. Let's make sure we do everything we can to minimise a catastrophe rather than see it unfold full throated in a way that puts at risk so many of our precious species.