Rosalie Woodruff MP | Greens Environment spokesperson
Tomorrow's celebration of Threatened Species Day marks the 79th anniversary of the death of the last known thylacine - a fate many of Tasmania's rarest species look to share. Tasmania is dragging its heels on threatened species protection, with a statewide strategy that hasn’t been updated for 15 years. We have close to 640 plants and animals listed as rare, vulnerable or threatened in the state and an out-of-date strategy to guide their protection. Of the 40 recovery plans for individual animals listed on the Tasmanian government website, more than half are out of date. It’s a similar situation for plant recovery plans. Minister Groom should be updating our statewide strategy and committing to new recovery plans for individual plants and animals. The first cab off the rank should be the swift parrot recovery plan, which has been held up by Tasmania’s absence from national efforts. Tasmania is home to many plants and animals which can only be found here. We have a responsibility to prevent more extinctions but we are not putting anywhere near enough funding in.