AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL ELECTION: ENVIRONMENT GROUPS CALL FOR STRONG CLIMATE ACTION

A marked absence of any real focus on environmental matters by either of the two major political parties in the current drawn-out federal election campaign prompted a strategy meeting to be held by NSW North Coast environmental groups recently.

At the head of the list of concerns is the almost total lack of any proposal for meaningful action on climate change.

Carbon emissions need to be reduced urgently. Protecting forests is an important and effective form of carbon sequestration that the government could act on immediately.

It was pointed out that the 20 million trees program, promoted under the current government's Direct Action policy, would be more than offset by the number of trees being destroyed by the Pacific Highway upgrade in the Clarence Valley alone.

The dumping of the NSW Native Vegetation Act and proposed relaxing of restrictions on land clearing in NSW, under the State Government's new Biodiversity Bill, will further exacerbate the problem, and positive actions to promote revegetation of the landscape were identified. 

In particular, the meeting reminded all political parties that, “Forests are the lungs of the earth.. They take in the carbon dioxide we emit, store the carbon and give us life-giving oxygen in return. They are vital to mitigate the impacts of climate change with the urgency required to halt the demise of the Great Barrier Reef”.

The meeting agreed that an effective way to achieve immediate positive results would be to:

• stop logging of native forests on public land.
• stop clearing of native forests on private land, and
• stop proposed burning of forests to generate electricity.

At the same time politicians were urged to support the imposition of a carbon trading scheme that would provide landowners with an alternative income stream to logging, Furthermore, landowners should be rewarded for protecting and rehabilitating native forests, protecting biodiversity, and restoring wildlife corridors and stream buffers.

Actions that reduce atmospheric carbon would not only help the Great Barrier Reef, and other ecosystems under threat from climate change, but also help replace the habitat of hundreds of threatened species already facing extinction through habitat loss, including Australia's iconic Koalas.

-          John Edwards

LAND CLEARING AND BIODIVERSITY IN NSW

The first of the NSW Government’s biodiversity reforms went on public exhibition on May 3 for eight weeks.  These proposed new laws are to replace other legislation including the Native Vegetation Act 2003 and the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995.

 

The draft Biodiversity Conservation Bill and the draft Local Land Services Amendment Bill are the first parts of the reform package to be released.

The stated purpose of the reforms is to “cut red tape, facilitate ecologically sustainable development and conserve biodiversity across NSW”.  

The cutting of red tape purpose is the result of the National Party promise to farmers that they would repeal the Native Vegetation Act.  The new rules will specify a system of self-regulation for farmers wanting to clear land – a system that the Government says will provide them with greater flexibility. 

Self-regulation is a mantra of government in the 21^st century.  It may be inspired by the desire to cut red tape for consumers as well as cutting costs for government agencies or, as a cynic may suspect, to allow “open slather” where there is usually very little checking by government agencies of whether the letter or spirit of the law is being met. Whatever the Government’s motive, self-regulation is wide-open to abuse.

Whether the new system will “facilitate ecologically sustainable development and conserve biodiversity” is very doubtful. 

Conservationists believe that the Government’s proposed changes to land clearing will endanger more species and lead to further carbon emissions.

There is concern that there will be increased clearing. We could see a similar devastation of native vegetation to that occurring in Queensland following the Newman Government’s weakened clearing laws. Almost 300,000 hectares of bushland were cleared there in 2013-14.

According to NSW Environment Minister Mark Speakman this won’t happen because there will be “a wider range of checks and balances in place to make sure that what we might have seen in Queensland does not happen in NSW.”

The checks and balances will need to be carefully designed and properly funded if the new rules are not to lead to broadscale land clearing.

-          Leonie Blain

This  post originally appeared in the VOICES FOR THE EARTH column in The Daily Examiner on 9th May, 2016.

BAIRD GOVERNMENT'S WAR ON TREES

Criticism of the NSW State Government’s attitudes towards environmental protection is growing. One example is the recent claim that the Baird Government is engaging in a war on trees in urban areas. 

Jeff Angel, Executive Director of the Total Environment Centre (TEC), has pointed to government decisions over the last 18 months which support this view. 

The first he identified is the 10/50 rule allowing landowners to remove trees which could pose a bushfire risk in bushfire-prone areas. The Government ignored concerns about loopholes in the code and the possibility it would be abused.  As a result many mature trees across the “leafy” suburbs were felled without clear evidence that bushfire risk would be mitigated.  This poorly thought-out code allowed developers to clear blocks and home-owners to improve their water views.  Community and local council concerns have since forced three separate changes to the code.

Another major urban vegetation loss will be in the Wolli Creek area (in Sydney's south) with the destruction of a threatened vegetation community when the West Connex road is built.  All told the TEC lists over 20 current attacks on urban bushland in Sydney.

A recent incident causing considerable community anger is the removal of mature trees, many of them large figtrees – some over 100 years old – along the Alison Road and Anzac Parade light rail route in eastern Sydney.  Suggestions from local residents and Randwick Council about alternatives to felling these significant trees were ignored by the government. Eight young replacement trees will be planted as an offset for every mature tree removed.  All very well - but as Jeff Angel states, “They cannot replicate what is lost in any useful time frame.” 

While the Baird Government is overseeing the clearing of mature urban trees, the Federal Government is planning to increase urban tree canopies to assist in cooling cities to combat the effects of the rising temperatures cities will experience with climate change. In a  recent article Oisin Sweeney, Science Officer of the National Park Association of NSW (NPA)  has used this as an example of the contradictions and inconsistencies in the approach of the Federal and NSW State Governments on environmental matters.  Such inconsistency would perhaps be understandable if these governments were from different political parties - but both are Liberal-National Coalition.

The NSW Government’s vegetation policies will affect non-urban areas because it is abolishing the Native Vegetation Act 2003 which was introduced in order to stop broadscale land clearing.  Given the Baird Government's poor environmental record there are real fears that the new legislation replacing the 2003 Act will downgrade environmental protection in response to urging from farming interests.  With so much native vegetation  already lost there are concerns about the survival of many flora and fauna species if the new legislation offers diminished protection.