Senator BOYCE (Queensland) (19:12): Tonight I would like to speak on the topic of unintended consequences, or perhaps I should say more correctly collateral damage. I imagine that most senators would remember that on 10 July this year the Australian owned company Darrell Lea went into voluntary administration because its directors had concerns about Darrell Lea's ability to meet its ongoing financial obligations. As all proper chocolate-eating Australians would know, Darrell Lea produced bilbies at Easter time—the Easter bilby—and in September also produced bilbies. They were the only official chocolate and confectionery company that did so. They raised over $350,000 for the Save the Bilby Fund as a result of producing those very edible chocolate bilbies. This source of funds has now dried up for the Save the Bilby Fund. Tonight I would like to remind senators that the second Sunday in September, which this year is 9 September, is National Bilby Day. We will currently celebrate it without chocolate bilbies. This would be a minor inconvenience if it was not such a serious representation of the issues affecting the real bilbies. The name 'bilby' comes from the Yuwaalaraay people of northern New South Wales. Bilbies have been important for thousands of years to Aboriginal culture and were a common food resource. There were two species of bilby: the greater bilby and the lesser bilby. The lesser bilby has not been seen for 70 years and is believed to be extinct. The greater bilby, which is the largest member of the bandicoot family, continues to survive—but only survive; it does not prosper. The bilby is listed as endangered in Queensland and vulnerable nationally, and it is the only surviving member of the subfamily of marsupials which once had six bandicoot species of this type surviving in the arid and semi-arid areas of Queensland. Bilby numbers have declined because of predation by introduced species such as feral cats and foxes; because of competition from farming animals such as sheep and cattle, who destroy the bilby habitat and compact the soil so that it is difficult for the bilbies to re-dig burrows; and, of course, because of the introduction of the European rabbit. It is not just a lot of other industries like grazing that have problems with the rabbit; the rabbit competes with the native bilby for burrows and food. In the wild bilbies survive for six to seven years; in captivity, for 11 years. Like koalas, they do not actually drink water regularly; they get most of their moisture from their food. They are omnivorous. Like many of our native animals, bilbies are marsupials. Unlike a lot of them, the bilbies have a pouch that actually faces backwards so that it cannot be filled with earth while the bilbies are digging their burrow—very clever. They live in grasslands and mulga shrub land in the hot, dry, arid and semi-arid areas of Australia. They build multiple burrows: one for living in and others for fooling predators. Bilbies once occupied 70 per cent of Australia, and now we can find them only in very small areas in the Northern Territory, in Western Australia and in south-west Queensland. The Queensland bilby population—Mr President, I know you will find this concerning—is the most threatened and genetically distinct population in Australia. It has declined radically in range over the past 10 years and is continuing to do so. Western Australia has had quite a lot of success with releasing hand raised bilbies back into the 13,000-hectare Dryandra Woodland. They seem to be coping with their predators. One of the very clever things about the Western Australian bilbies is that they survive by eating a local plant which has a selective poison that does not affect the native animals but does affect introduced species. The poison bush—Gastrolobium microcarpum—occurs throughout the south-west of Western Australia, and native mammals are tolerant of that poison. There has been another interesting project—the Arid Recovery project—in the area around Roxby Downs which sought to train bilbies to avoid feral cats, which are, of course, one of their great predators. You will appreciate that there are very few bilbies being born in the wild now. The majority are coming from captive breeding programs designed to try to eventually re-establish populations in the wild. Most of the bilbies that were released in Roxby Downs died; they were killed by feral cats. So the bilbies have been trained to change their behaviour if they encounter cat scents and droppings, and it is wonderful that it is succeeding. Their behaviour has changed. They hide immediately if they smell a cat, they change burrows more frequently and they build burrows with more entrances than they did in the past—all of which will assist them to do this. I had the privilege to meet one of the two men who established the Save the Bilby Fund, Frank Manthey, recently. He was awarded an OAM in the recent honours list for his work. He also brought along a bilby, and I must admit that I fell for the bilby. They are so soft. They are very cute. They are highly nocturnal, so this animal was not at all impressed with meeting me, but I was very impressed with meeting it. I point out that Frank Manthey and Peter McRae are responsible for the establishment of the bilby fence at Currawinya National Park, in Queensland. This is a 25-square-kilometre electrified predator proof fence. It was set up at a cost of $500,000 so that captive-bred bilbies re-released into this community can survive. As I said earlier, the Queensland bilby population is the most threatened and the most genetically distinct population in Australia, yet its numbers are dropping drastically. The bilby fence at Currawinya National Park was officially opened in 2003, and the first bilby release was in 2005. There was a subsequent release in May 2010. The fence is a massive undertaking—a 400-millimetre wire netting skirt at the base to stop creatures burrowing under the fence, springy wires across the top to stop foxes and cats climbing over it, 5,000 volts of electricity pulsing through it to stop emus and kangaroos from crashing into it and damaging the net, two million staples, 4,100 steel pegs and 240 kilometres of plain high-tensile wire were used in this fence. The biggest concern is that the lack of chocolate bilbies, the subsidy from sale of chocolate bilbies through Darrell Lea, means that there is a strong danger that this fence will fall into disrepair. So I would like to urge everyone (a) to observe National Bilby Day on 9 September and (b) to send funds if they can to the Save the Bilby Fund to protect this gorgeous little creature and to support a very worthwhile conservation effort. Senate adjourned at 19:22