The Tasmanian Greens and government have clashed in parliament over the blocking of nesting hollows for swift parrots on Tasmania's East Coast.
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In Question Time, Greens Franklin MHA Dr Rosalie Woodruff asked Environment Minister Roger Jaensch whether the removal of the nesting hollows was a crime under the Threatened Species Protection Act, and if he would step in to remove any legislative loophole.
"Do you accept that blocking hollows to prevent nesting, instead of actively killing the birds when their nesting trees are logged for development, is nonetheless an effective death of the critically endangered swift parrot by a thousand cuts?" she asked.
"This is not about preventing swift parrots breeding. It is about getting in before the breeding season, closing off some possible breeding sites and diverting them, so they can breed away from areas that are going to be disturbed."
According to BirdLife Australia: "Swift parrots breed only in Tasmania and then fly across Bass Strait to forage on the flowering eucalypts in open box-ironbark forests of the Australian mainland. While on the mainland, they are nomadic, spending weeks or months at some sites and only a few hours at others, determined by the supply of nectar. During dry years, when the eucalypts' flowering is poor, Swift parrots are forced to travel far and wide to find sufficient food, and may congregate into large flocks at sites where it is available."