A scathing report into the Albanese Government's handling of delayed federal environmental law reform has found time is running out for Australia's threatened wildlife and ecosystems and has urged the government to complete the task in this term of parliament.
The interim report from the Senate Inquiry into Australia’s Extinction Crisis was released today (May 23). It found the government was not even meeting its own timeframes for reform and was critical of the government's “staged” approach.
It follows an earlier report by the same inquiry that found Australia’s rate of faunal extinction had continued to increase since the introduction of the EPBC Act more than two decades ago.
Lock the Gate Alliance spokesperson Georgina Woods said, “This damning interim report warns that Australia’s natural areas and unique wildlife will pay the price of the Albanese Government’s floundering on environmental law reform.
“The Federal Court just last week described Australia’s environmental laws as ‘ill-suited’ to assess the impacts of climate change and global warming on matters of national environmental significance.
“Climate change is driving huge numbers of Australia’s plants and animals to extinction, but our national environment laws prevent consideration of the climate change consequences of developments like coal mining and gas fracking.
“The report makes it clear that there is no little to no value in creating an Environment Protection Authority, unless or until there is root and branch reform undertaken to fix the glaring failures with the laws.
“We need a climate change trigger, community rights to interrogate decisions, and far stronger protection for wildlife habitat to stop coal and gas expansions destroying Australia’s natural heritage.”
ENDS