Thursday, 4 December 2008

The Rudd government and Turnbull opposition have voted to continue logging koala habitat forests in NSW. The Senate voted 51-6 against Greens Leader Bob Brown's motion.

Senator Xenophon voted for the motion, which read:

That the Senate-

(a) welcomes the reported decision of the Minister for Climate Change and the Environment (Ms Tebbutt) to spend $1.23 million on a recovery plan for koalas, including revegetating koala habitat; and

(b) calls on the New South Wales Government to halt logging of any koala habitat forest including that in the Bermagui region on the state's south coast.

Senator Brown, who visited the Bermagui Forest last Friday, said the NSW government's logging was fragmenting the habitat of the koala and facilitating its road to extinction.

Further information: Ebony Bennett 0409 164 603