It has also received a submission from Queensland’s Black Throated Finch Recovery Team as both state and federal governments assess Adani’s Carmichael coal mine in the Galilee Basin.

The koala is classified as vulnerable under both Queensland and Australian government legislation, however in south-east Queensland a number of reports say populations are declining towards extinction.

Koala numbers in the Redlands have declined by 80 per cent in the past decade.

Serious questions have more recently been raised about government policy and koala protection on the northern edge of the Gold Coast.

Last month, the Queensland government named a taskforce to try to protect koalas in south-east Queensland, while issues such as land clearing for housing were debated.

The Senate committee meeting in Brisbane is investigating the extinction of Australian fauna.

Senate committee chair, Victorian Greens senator Janet Rice, inspected Cleveland Harbour on Thursday ahead of public hearings in Queensland’s Speaker’s Hall at Parliament House in George Street.

Development company Walker Group plans to build 3600 apartments at a completely remodelled Toondah Harbour at Cleveland, where ferries travel across to North Stradbroke Island.

It sits on a section of Moreton Bay that is included in internationally protected wetlands, recognised under the Ramsar Agreement.

Moreton Bay has a population of 50,000 wading shorebirds. At least two vulnerable wading bird species, the eastern curlew and the bar-tailed godwit, use Cleveland's Toondah Harbour.

Walker’s 2017 development application to remodel the harbour was described by the federal environment department as likely to cause “permanent and irreversible damage” to the wetlands.

Walker subsequently lodged a revised development application in 2018.

Senator Rice said Toondah Harbour was “clearly an important habitat for wading birds”.

She said she wanted to hear evidence from a range of groups and organisations.

Senator Rice said the debate about Toondah Harbour raised questions about the effectiveness of Australia’s environment laws.

“The Commonwealth issues involved in this are whether our Commonwealth environment laws are sufficient to be protecting the habitat which is so significant for a whole range of migratory birds, which includes the critically endangered eastern curlew," she said.

The Senate committee will also hear submissions from University of Queensland koala expert Frank Carrick and conservationist Sue Arnold, who have both criticised the Queensland and federal government's koala conservation policy.

Ms Arnold in 2018 threatened to take the Queensland government to court for slow pace of koala conservation reform leading to “politically expedient” extinction of koalas in south-east Queensland.

The Senate environment committee is concerned at the impact of the loss of habitat on Australian fauna.

Australia has lost 25 per cent of its rainforest, 45 per cent of its open forest, 32 per cent of its woodland forest and 30 per cent of mallee forest in 200 years while its population has grown to 24.7 million by 2018.

In Queensland over the past four years, more than 1.2 million hectares of forest and bushland were cleared, the Wilderness Society said.

The inquiry received 411 submissions, including 78 from organisations, government and individuals in Queensland.

The Walker Group has donated several hundred thousand dollars to both the Liberal and Labor parties since the Rudd government in 2007.

New federal donation figures to political donations will be released Friday.

Saturday, February 2, is World Wetlands Day, which marks the day Australia signed the international Ramsar agreement in 1971.