Booby in peril as laws ignored

The Australian, Page: 5
Monday, 15 May 2006

THE federal Government has sidestepped its own environmental laws to build a $336 million detention centre on Christmas Island, despite the facility being nestled between pristine rainforest and national parkland which is home to an endangered Australian bird. The local community has voiced concerns about the project's impact on the Abbott's booby, a bird that breeds only in the island's rainforest. There have also been claims that building work has cut off a red-crab migration route. It is believed some of the crabs, which are also found only on the island 2630km north of Perth, have been killed by heavy machinery.

The site of the 800-bed Immigration Reception and Processing Centre lies next to the prime habitat of the Abbott's booby, which is listed as critically endangered by Birds Australian. Also on the list is the orange-bellied parrot, which was used as justification for halting moves to build a wind farm in Victoria. Despite the centre's proximity to the birds, the Government has exempted itself from complying with the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. While the legislation was not being followed, a spokeswoman for Environment Minister Ian Campbell said the centre was being constructed in accordance with an environmental management plan that would ensure the Abbott's booby was not affected.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Finance and Administration, which is acting as project manager, said the department was not involved in the process that resulted in the exemption from the act. But the department refused to release an environmental study of the ecosystem to The Australian because it was "a work in progress". In a previous plan to boost numbers of the booby, the federal Environment and Heritage Department said all construction staff should be briefed before starting work to minimise the impact on the birds. "Construction of the facility and road upgrade may remove nesting trees and add to the wind turbulence caused by man-made forest openings, that causes nesting failure, " the report said.