WHAT IS NEEDED IN AUSTRALIA'S NEW FEDERAL ENVIRONMENT LAWS

Professor Graeme Samuel’s 2021 report on the effectiveness of the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1991 (EPBC Act) found that it had largely failed to protect biodiversity.  The government is now working towards amending the act to make it more effective.

A recent article in The Conversation listed broad requirements for improving the effectiveness of the EPBC Act to prevent further species loss as well as working to hasten environmental recovery.  Three of these five listed requirements are discussed below.

The current Act ignores the issue of the impacts of climate change on biodiversity which means the federal environment minister is not required to consider developments such as new or expanded coal mines and gas fields and their climate impacts on biodiversity.  As climate change clearly threatens biodiversity, a climate trigger should be included in the amended Act.

A second requirement is the need to provide effective habitat protection.  This is urgently needed for threatened species such as swift parrots, koalas and greater gliders who are being driven towards extinction because their habitats are being destroyed or fragmented.  And in Australia’s north biodiversity is increasingly threatened by the development of industries such as cotton and fracking for gas which involve extensive land clearing as well as water extraction.

Also discussed was the importance of the new Act not devolving federal approval powers to state and territory governments - something the former federal government was planning to do.  Given the track record of some state and territory governments, this passing the buck could have disastrous consequences as well as leading to inconsistency across the country.

A third requirement was the importance of establishing an independent umpire which operates at arms length from government.  Hopefully the government’s commitment to creating a national Environmental Protection Agency will ensure that the independent umpire is impowered to prevent any political interference by governments leading to over-riding of the biodiversity protection laws.

It will be interesting to see the legislation when it is unveiled.

-        Leonie Blain

 

 Published in the "Voices for the Earth" column in The Clarence Valley Independent , November 29, 2023

 

A FEDERAL ENVIRONMENT ACT WORTH DEFENDING

 In July 2020, Graeme Samuel released his interim report on the second review of Australia’s national environment law, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act). This interim report confirmed the community’s lack of trust in the Act’s effectiveness to protect the environment, which is in decline and under increasing threat.

This review is a once-in-a-decade chance to improve protection for the places and animals we love. But is the Commonwealth Government using it as an excuse to target the EPBC Act as merely green tape in need of cutting?

Samuel’s interim review report did recommend sweeping changes to the Act, such as: improving everyone’s access to quality ecological data (with ‘everyone’ including decision-makers, proponents and the community); more research into ecosystem functioning to improve confidence in predicting the impacts of development; clearer direction to avoid or mitigate environmental impacts from development; a set of legally enforceable national environmental standards; and removal of duplication between federal and state processes.

Samuel’sfinal report was submitted to Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley in October and was publicly released on January 28, 2021.

Before the submission on the final report, the Morrison Government was already cherry-picking recommendations to suit its agenda. It commenced work on handing over approvals to the states based on some “interim” national environmental standards. Interim standards hurriedly made and cemented in these agreements could undermine the development of the comprehensive national standards Samuel recommends for environmental protection and outcomes.

We need strong safeguards in place to protect our globally important places and unique wildlife. We also need a better regulator to oversee compliance. Samuel was scathing in highlighting that penalties issued over the past 10 years under the EPBC Act are less than a quarter of the parking fines issued in one year by Orange City Council.

Weakening the EPBC Act to speed up project approvals will only fast-track environmental destruction.