QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS

Senator DAVID POCOCK (Australian Capital Territory—Independent ACT Whip) (15:32): I move: That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for the Environment and Water (Senator Watt) to a question without notice I asked today relating to our preparedness for H5 bird flu and the doom list for Australian animals. The Albanese government knows that Australians care about the incredible biodiversity we share this continent with, and they've made all sorts of promises, like 30 by 30 and no new extinctions.

The thing they won't do is cough up the cash to make that a reality. It is a great tragedy, as a country, how little we spend on conservation in this country. We have many in the party that calls themselves conservative that don't actually seem to want to conserve this great continent, and I find that really hard to take.

Then you have a Labor government who says they're doing all the right things and then are spending 6c out of every $100 in the budget on biodiversity conservation in this country. That's one buck for every $1,667. How is that the case, given what we're seeing in nature and given what is at stake?

We seem to try and convince ourselves that we somehow live outside of nature. We are wholly reliant on nature for our survival. Physically, emotionally and, I'd argue, spiritually we have a connection with nature, and we will be damned to our future generations if we don't actually get this right and step up.

We've seen multibillion-dollar bailouts for smelters, and you could argue that there's good merit in that. Where's the bailout for nature? Why does nature have to rely on the crumbs from the government?

I'll certainly be listening to the Biodiversity Council before I listen to the Labor government about what they're spending on biodiversity conservation in this country. We're not spending enough, and, year on year, we're going backwards. It's very generous to extend a fund for a couple of years, but then it falls off a cliff.

We've got to get serious about conservation in this country. I think this bird flu is a total wake-up call for our country. We're in for a rough ride.

I think we stand to lose a huge amount, and there's going to be a lot of grief across this country as we start to lose the incredible wildlife that we know and love. Question agreed to.