Threatened species bill up for vote
By Tracy Sorensen
A private member's bill to protect the biodiversity of the Australian continent is to be debated in the Senate this month. Democrat Senator John Coulter's Commonwealth Threatened Species Bill seeks to "establish a comprehensive and coordinated response to the alarming loss of species".
The bill establishes lists which identify threatened species, populations and ecological communities which the federal government is obliged to protect, and requires the implementation of threatened species recovery programs.
The bill gives the government the power to issue conservation orders to restrain acts that are likely to be harm threatened species or their habitats. Landholders financially affected by the legislation are to be compensated.
"The success of conservation of biodiversity lies in extensive processes of community cooperation and involvement", Coulter told the Senate when he first introduced the bill in September 1991.
Coulter said that European Australia has one of the worst records of species extinction of any country — in just over 200 years wiping out 30 large and visible animals and 100 plants. More than 100 animals and nearly 1000 plants are currently threatened.
Seven artists donated paintings and sketches to an exhibition which toured Perth, Sydney and Canberra in April to raise public awareness of the bill. Funds raised from the exhibition will go to the World Wide Fund for Nature's threatened species project.