One year ago, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek released the confronting 2021 State of the Environment Report. The landmark report confirmed what many of us already knew: when it comes to our environment things are getting worse, not better.
Minister Plibersek made it clear that unlike the previous government, the Albanese government would be stepping up and acting on the report’s dire warnings:
Australians really care about the landscapes they live in, and about the precious places they will never visit, but want protected anyway. They just need a government that cares as much as they do. - Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek
Twelve months on, ACF puts the government's promises to the test by checking what progress has been made and outlining the urgent priorities for further action.
Australia’s extinction crisis
What the government promised (3.5/5):
- Zero new extinctions objective.
- An overhaul of the national environmental laws, including new ‘fit-for-purpose' strategies for threatened species recovery.
- Joined with other countries to back the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Progress to date (2/5):
- The commitment to zero new extinctions is great, but the Threatened Species Action Plan applies to only 110 of the nearly 2000 and growing list of threatened species and communities, and funding in this year’s budget is still way under what is required.
- Environmental laws continue to fail threatened species.
- Urgently needed reforms to national environmental law are under development, but behind schedule and are now unlikely to be introduced to Parliament until 2024 rather than this year as promised.
What needs to happen?
- The government must prioritise introducing strong national environment laws that protect wildlife and the places they call home.
- Detailed and funded plan for no new extinctions.
- Funding for threatened species protection and recovery needs to be significantly increased.
- Proposed plans for implementing Australia’s commitments under the Global Biodiversity Framework need to be released for public consultation so a final plan can be prepared by late 2024.
Habitat destruction
Habitat destruction is a leading cause of extinction in Australia, directly contributing to the listing of 60% of Australia’s threatened species. ACF research has shown our ineffective national environment laws are allowing hundreds of thousands of hectares of habitat for threatened species to be bulldozed for beef production without penalty or consequence.
What the government promised (3/5):
- Clear, legally enforceable outcomes-focused National Environmental Standards that prevent unacceptable and unsustainable impacts on threatened species and other matters of national environmental significance.
- New national environmental laws including regional plans which will protection critical habitat in ‘no go zones’.
Progress to date (2/5):
- New National Environmental Standards and new environmental laws are under development. Drafts were to be released mid-2023, but are now likely to come later in the year.
- Approvals continue to be granted for destruction of important habitat, and potentially unlawful clearing of habitat for critically endangered species is still occurring.
What needs to happen?
- The government needs to urgently prioritise the development of legally enforceable, outcome-focused standards and national environmental laws that protect critical habitat from destruction.
Native forest logging
Industrial logging of Australia’s native forests continues to push species like the greater glider and Swift parrot to the brink of extinction, whilst also contributing to the climate crisis by destroying our natural carbon stores. Courts have confirmed that state laws are failing to protect threatened species impacted by logging. And yet, logging continues to be exempt from national environmental laws.
What the government promised (2.5/5):
- According to the Nature Positive Plan, ‘the government will work with stakeholders and relevant jurisdictions towards applying National Environmental Standards to Regional Forest Agreements to support their ongoing operation together with stronger environmental protection.’
Progress to date (2/5):
- Western Australian and now Victoria have agreed to shut down native forest logging, prioritising protection of threatened species habitat and preservation of native forest carbon stores.
- Destructive native forest logging to continue in NSW, Queensland and Tasmania under a controversial exemption to national nature protection laws.
What needs to happen?
- Development of new National Environmental Standards which protect our precious native forests.
- Action to bring native forest logging to an end across Australia and to remove the exemption of native forest logging from national environmental laws.
Climate change
“Climate change and associated extreme events, compounded by other pressures, have had a major impact on biodiversity over the past 5 years, and further consequences are likely to be magnified in the future.”
- 2021 State of the Environment report
Currently, new fossil fuel projects are assessed and approved under the EPBC Act without consideration of their impacts on climate change.
What the government promised (2.5/5):
- The Albanese government’s Nature Positive Plan promises that new national environmental laws will require new projects to disclose scope 1 and scope 2 emissions, but not scope 3 emissions, and “integrate climate considerations, where relevant, through national environmental law”.
Progress to date (2/5):
- The government continues to approve fossil fuel projects, including coal mines without considering the impact of these projects on climate change.
- The Safeguard Mechanism includes a ‘pollution trigger’ which will require the Environment Minister to tell the Climate Change Minister about project emissions after a project has been approved.
What needs to happen?
- The Albanese government needs to immediately start considering the climate impacts of all new fossil fuel projects to the maximum extent permitted under the current EPBC Act.
- We need urgent reforms to national environmental laws to consider all emissions over the life of a project for all assessments.
- All approvals granted under national environmental law should be consistent with Australia’s international climate commitments and with protecting matters of national environmental significance such as threatened species and the Great Barrier Reef. In addition, climate change should be added as a new matter of national environmental significance as part of the EPBC reforms.
Restoring public trust in environmental law
“The federal government has been receiving the same messages for years now. And the central theme, over and over again, is trust and integrity. People don’t trust that the Commonwealth is protecting the environment.”
- Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek
What the government promised (3/5):
- New national environmental laws will include a National Environmental Standard for Community Engagement and Consultation.
- A new independent regulator, Environment Protection Australia.
- Greater transparency of decisions made under national environmental law and improved access to data.
Progress to date (2.5/5):
- Reforms to national environmental law are progressing, but are behind schedule, with drafts likely to be released for public consultation later in 2023.
- There has been no community engagement and consultation on the development to the proposed National Environmental Standard.
What needs to happen?
- Reforms to national environmental law need to be progressed urgently. These must include a fully independent EPA operating at arms’ length from the government and with its own board, legal rights to challenge decisions , and a right to timely, accurate and independently verified information about how Australia is tracking against nature protection targets.
- The government needs to begin consultation on proposed new National Environmental Standard for Community Engagement and Consultation so this is ready when new laws commence.
Enforcing the law
The independent review confirmed ‘there has been limited activity to enforce the EPBC Act over the 20-year period it has been in effect and a lack of transparency about what has been done.’ ACF exposed a double standard in enforcement of our laws which allows thousands of hectares of habitat for threatened species to be bulldozed.
What the government promised (3.5/5):
- A new regulator responsible for compliance and enforcement under national environmental laws, Environment Protection Australia. The Albanese government has committed to an independent regulator, but has stopped short of agreeing to the EPA having its own independent Board.
Progress to date (2.5/5):
- $121 million to establish the new EPA in the 2023-2024 budget.
- The department has been restructured in readiness for the move to a new EPA, but still unclear if there is increased compliance and enforcement action.
- Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek recently announced an audit of compliance with offset conditions.
What needs to happen?
- Consultation on draft legislation to establish the EPA, and a commitment to introduce the proposed new laws to parliament by the end of 2023 or very early in 2024.
- A strong fully independent EPA operating at arms’ length from the government with its own Board, adequate funding, and legal powers to enforce national environmental laws.
- A commitment to take enforcement action on any failures to comply with offset conditions identified by the recently announced offsets audit.
Funding for nature
“The previous government’s funding cuts held back business, they damaged the economy, and they undermined practical efforts to protect our environment.”
– Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek
Funding is well short of what is required to prevent new extinctions. Despite the ongoing and steep decline of the health of our environment, spending on biodiversity projects by the federal government has declined by almost 40% since 2013.
What the government promised (2.5/5):
- Some funding has been restored, but current budgets still fall well short of what is required. While there are positive announcements on nature – including funding to reform our failed national environment law and a new national EPA – the government’s approach to the biodiversity crisis could best be described as timid.
- Government has prioritised development of a Nature Repair Market.
Progress to date (2/5):
- No long-term program to restore funding for nature protection to previous levels or to ensure that funding is adequate to prevent new extinctions of deliver other important commitments.
What needs to happen?
- Significantly increased public funding for nature protection. Scientists estimate $1.6 billion a year needed to halt species loss and recover nationally listed threatened species.
- Nature Repair Market must not be funded by nature destruction. Offsets should be ruled out and the market must not operate at the expense of the significant increases in public funding that are required.
The 2021 State of the Environment Report made it clear that Australia is facing an extinction crisis. The Albanese government has shown that it is prepared to take action, and in the 12 months since the release of the Report, they have promised reforms to national environmental laws, signed up to a new Global Biodiversity Framework and committed to zero new extinctions. But urgent action is now needed to implement the promises like the overhaul of national environmental laws, and to fix areas where what has been promised falls short – especially funding nature protection and restoration.
