Committee Secretary 10th September 2018

Senate Standing Committees on Environment and Communications PO Box 6100 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600

RE: ‘An inquiry into Australia’s Faunal Extinction crisis.’

Koala Action Region (KAGR) is a community group formed in January 2015 to work on ways to help secure the future of koalas in our region, which extends from the Cooloola Coast out to . This is a region where koala populations have had no attention from the three levels of Government (as we are outside SEQ), until our group formed and started to put a spotlight on our declining koala populations. That led to our local Council doing koala mapping and our Council’s first ever Koala Conservation Management Plan (2018). There is also some research and mitigation happening in relation to the Cooroy-Curra upgrade through koala habitat. (Section C and the forthcoming final Section D). Various State legislation, such as a requirement to have spotter catchers, does not apply in our region as we are outside SEQ.

Our group’s overwhelming view is that we have very little support from State and Federal Governments in trying to ensure the future of our precious local koala populations. The brunt is being born by wildlife hospitals/rescuers/carers, and landholders who try to do their bit to protect and improve habitat, all the while often simultaneously trying to do the local awareness-raising and lobbying, as habitats disappear around them due to a raft of holes/exemptions in legislation. It is exhausting, disheartening and distressing-today I attended the body of a young dispersing male koala on the Bruce Highway, south of Gympie, delaying my plan to write this till the afternoon.

Key Message from our KAGR group: We need the Australian Government to accept responsibility for our threatened fauna species, in legislation and action, not just in words. We and the general public believe our Government is failing its duty of care nationally and globally. It is also failing future generations of Australians who will ask of the loss of precious species ‘how can that happen?’ when governments have had so much science and conservation expertise presented to them at this and other enquiries. We know you will receive input from people with enormous expertise and wisdom that comes from often decades of conservation effort, research and practice. We sincerely hope the effort they put in (often many times over at different enquiries) is valued and used to make a difference. We particularly request that the Senate Enquiry ensure the Australian Government develop some policy and framework that accepts custodianship of our iconic koala and its future. This is totally lacking currently. We are disillusioned with the ineffectiveness of the EPBC Act and its lack of concern for cumulative impacts of habitat destruction on koala populations. We totally understand why the Australian Koala Foundation now focuses its effort on achieving such through a national Koala Protection Act. This group of 30 years standing has fought so hard, and seen many an enquiry come and go, only to see the numbers of koalas plummeting in much of and NSW. The time has come for stronger overarching national policies that are clear, effective, and outcome-focussed and that can actually be implemented as opposed to so much policy that sounds good and is totally ineffective. As a community group, we plead that you give this enquiry the utmost attention, urgency and status. We are talking ‘extinction’ after all. Attached is our detailed background information to this submission.

Yours faithfully, Ms. Michelle Daly Coordinator Koala Action (KAGR) Attachment: Senate Enquiry into the Faunal Extinction Crisis: Koalas

Gympie and the Wide Bay Burnett Region The region is one of the most biologically diverse in Australia, featuring a number of significant habitats supporting a variety of federally listed threatened species. Land clearing for development causing loss of habitat and fragmentation of connectivity is a major threat to native fauna in this rapidly growing region of Australia, particularly species like the koala. Where development is rampant, koalas simply have nowhere to go, and are becoming locally extinct where once healthy populations existed. Areas to the north of Gympie including Tinana and Tiaro are examples of this. Many more species facing decline share similar habitat to koalas including the Grey Headed Flying fox, the Greater Glider and the Spotted Tail Quoll. Growing population and growth It is difficult to envisage a future where the population and conservation status of Australia’s nearly 500 threatened fauna species is improved in and the Wide Bay region, given the constant push for growth and development and the increasing demand for natural resources With decision makers at three levels of government, a population which has doubled in the last 50 years and no population policy, it is unlikely that the rate of development and the demand for natural resources will lessen, and the decline of threatened species will continue. Offsets are ineffective Offsets directed to mitigating impacts on threatened species are haphazard and in some cases do nothing to directly reverse the decline of the rare and threatened species they are intended to support. Wildlife care groups and the RSPCA can attest to the numbers of koalas hit and killed on major highways or in areas cleared for development regardless of offsets associated with the infrastructure construction. Lack of National Recovery Plans and compliance Clearly the Commonwealth environment laws and the EPBC Act are failing to protect a number of threatened species in this region alone. Very few species have a National Recovery Plan to guide key recovery actions, and much of the work towards “saving” a species is undertaken by underfunded community organisations or individuals in partnership with researchers and committed volunteers. Without the EPBC legislation driving meaningful change to threatened fauna through National Recovery Plans, the legislation is mainly used for reactive purposes like development applications or critical infrastructure projects which do not require the same level of scrutiny under the EPBC Act. There are also questions about lack of compliance or enforcement for breaches of the EPBC Act, and a concern that the Queensland Government is not checking that environmental conditions and offsets for mining, development and critical infrastructure projects are being met. In south east Queensland and the Wide Bay region, there is little or no evidence that protection of critical habitat for threatened fauna is effective or adequate, certainly in the example of the koala. Lack of koala population monitoring In the Wide Bay Burnett Region (north of SEQ) there is no koala population monitoring (and we understand very little of any threatened species and their habitat). Any koala sightings and impacts that are recorded are primarily driven by the efforts of community organisations like Koala Tracker and koala conservation groups like ours, in the belief that that the data is crucial and will be useful (and in the absence of any government monitoring). This data however is not considered to be quality assured, which means that only the State Government Wildnet database is used by planners and developers to determine species presence/absence. This database particularly lacks data on koalas outside of SEQ.

The front-line: volunteer organizations: Wildlife rescue organisations are constantly in the front line dealing with human impacts on wildlife and threatened species such as the koala, the gliders, flying foxes and a range of native fauna. There is little or no recognition for the work that they do or funding to support these groups, who need to fund raise constantly to support their organisations. The RSPCA in reported that in the last year more 22,000 native animals and birds have passed through the Wildlife Hospital, an increase from fewer than 8,000 admissions four years ago. This included 339 koalas of which only 110 were able to be released. Rampant development resulting in loss of habitat, diseases such as chlamydia and retrovirus, vehicle strikes and dog attacks are devastating koala populations in our region.

Community expectation and conclusion: The wider community expects the Commonwealth Government to take the lead and honour its domestic and international obligations to conserve and protect all wildlife, particularly threatened fauna and the habitat needed to sustain these species. Two factors needed to achieve this are adequate funding and political will. The Australian Government's Threatened Species Strategy states that Australia’s unique plants and animals are the core to our identity, culturally significant to Indigenous peoples, important to the health of our environment and a strong contributor to our economy. If a well-known and much loved species like the koala cannot survive and flourish despite a raft of federal, state and local government plans and policies aimed at protecting the species and their habitat, there is little hope for lesser known and more obscure threatened species.

Yours faithfully, Ms. Michelle Daly Coordinator Koala Action Gympie Region (KAGR)