Wednesday’s stoush before the full court came on the same day researchers revealed the “horror show” news there could be fewer than 300 swift parrots, which breed in Tasmania, remaining in the wild.

The foundation has dubbed its high-profile court clash the “Great Forest Case” as it took action against the Commonwealth of Australia, the State of Tasmania and Sustainable Timber Tasmania — following a similar battle against the Victoria RFA earlier this year.In court, Ron Merkel QC argued on behalf of the foundation that most of the state’s forestry operations were illegal because the provisions of the RFA clashed with Commonwealth legislation.The prominent silk said the RFA’s provisions were not enforceable, and damaging to the Regional Forest Agreements Act’s intentions to protect the environment and native species, “and in particular prevent extinction”.

But barrister Anna Mitchelmore SC, acting for the Commonwealth, said there was no conflict — with the legislation adaptive to forest management systems that were not fixed over time.Shaun McElwaine SC, acting for Sustainable Timber Tasmania, also said Tasmania’s environment wasn’t just protected by the RFA, but by a suite of legislation governing national parks and threatened species, among others.The foundation says it is “buoyed” by the recent Federal Court decision in the Friends of the Leadbeater’s Possum case, which found logging and forestry under the Victorian RFA weren’t undertaken in accordance with the Act.The foundation hopes a decision will be handed down by the court that sets a precedent for similar legislation in other states, which it said are “notoriously inadequate” in terms of protecting threatened species like the critically endangered swift parrot.The alarming number revealed on Wednesday is much lower than previous estimates.“That’s horrifying, it’s a horror show,” Dr Brown said, describing Tasmania’s state government as a “chief villain”.

“A primary cause of this is logging, the destruction of the nesting sites of birds here in Tasmania deliberately by government and the logging industry, driving this species to extinction.“This is a disaster — extinction is coming quickly to the swift parrot.”Justices Edwards Griffiths, Mark Moshinsky and Sarah Derrington reserved their decision to be delivered at a future date.
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