No matter who you are, having high standards is a good thing.

We all want a high standard of living.

We want schools to have high standards for education and hospitals to provide the highest standard of healthcare.

So, it makes sense that we should demand high standards for the laws that protect nature; the very thing that provides us with the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat.

But that’s not what we currently have.

Federal Environment Minister, Murray Watt, has put forward draft National Environmental Standards that simply do not deliver for nature. They’re weak and could be used to justify any project – even the most destructive.

But the good news is that we have an opportunity to lift these Standards.

It’s important that the Albanese Government gets them right. They are essentially a checklist that the Governments will use to decide whether projects that impact on Australia’s threatened forests, reefs and animals should get the greenlight or not. If these standards are not lifted, the natural world we rely on will continue to decline.

The Albanese Government is seeking feedback on what they’ve put on the table, and we know how to make the Standards better.

We’re calling for National Environmental Standards that will:

🌳Protect forests from being bulldozed

🐨Keep threatened species’ homes safe

🌏Account for the impacts of climate change

So, what can you do to help lift the Standards for protecting nature?

Make your voice heard and make a submission - Strong input from people like you can ensure the Albanese Government’s Standards delivers for nature. The opportunity to provide feedback on the Standards closes 11:59pm AEST on Friday, 29 May 2026.
Email Minister Watt – We've written the key policy points, you just send them! To make the changes we need to see a reality, Murray Watt needs to hear from everyday people who demand better for nature. Join more than 5000 people who have already emailed him demanding higher Standards.
Leave a comment on Minister Watt’s Facebook page – This is a highly visible way to demonstrate public demand for Standards that actually protect the nature we all need and love.
Write to your MP – Use the five points below to tell your MP you want them to pressure Environment Minister Murray Watt to lift the National Environmental Standards. Click here to enter your postcode and find out who your Federal representative is.

Five key changes we want to see in the draft Standards

The Standards must:

Lift the bar for nature protection and halt nature’s decline: Australia’s national nature law has for so long failed to protect and restore nature. Standards under the reformed Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act need to fix this.
Be clear, enforceable, and focused on better results for nature - not just processes: As it’s currently proposed, the legal test for consistency with the Matters of National Environmental Significance Standard (a standard within the broader National Environment Standards), will be met if a developer merely confirms they have complied with some principles and followed certain processes. There’s no requirement that these processes deliver on what the Standard should set out to achieve – better results for nature. The objectives for Matters of National Environmental Significance won’t amount to much if there’s no requirement for decisions to be aligned with them.
Strengthen protections for threatened species: Threatened species need homes. ACF analysis shows tens of thousands of hectares of threatened species habitat are approved for destruction under Australia’s national nature law every single year. Even more is allowed to proceed without any assessment of its impact. Habitat destruction for threatened species and the bulldozing of ecological communities will continue unless the Standards include clear, strong protections for threatened species and their homes.
Require decisions to account for cumulative impacts: Cumulative impacts (AKA ‘death by a thousand cuts’) drive threatened species closer to extinction and undermine protection for World Heritage sites like the Great Barrier Reef and internationally recognised wetlands. The Standards must explicitly require decisions about proposed projects and activities to account for these cumulative impacts on nature.
Require decisions to consider climate change impacts: Climate change threatens the wildlife and places protected under Australia’s national nature law, but shockingly it’s not mentioned once in the Standard. It should be considered when assessing proposed developments, and decisions should be required to promote and enhance the resilience of protected wildlife and places in the face of climate change impacts.