Labor vows to restore our dying ecosystems
ALMOST one-third of Australia’s land and oceans would be protected by 2030 under a major regulatory overhaul to replenish the health of the natural world.
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has vowed to restore Australia’s ecosystems from their state of decline by making “fundamental reform” to the country’s environmental laws and creating new national parks.
Ms Plibersek announced Labor’s new conservation commitments as she unveiled the 2021 State of the Environment report at the National Press Club on Tuesday.
“Our government will set a goal of protecting 30 per cent of our land and 30 per cent of our oceans by 2030,” she said. “We’ll explore the creation of new national parks and marine protected areas including by pursuing the east Antarctic marine park.”
A “disturbing” environmental report card “kept hidden” by the previous government has painted a grim picture of a natural world in decline.
Ms Plibersek said the fiveyearly scientific assessment made for “disturbing reading”, and told a story of crisis for Australia’s environment after a “decade of government inaction and wilful ignorance”.
Her predecessor in the portfolio Sussan Ley received the report in December and ignored calls to release it before the federal election.
“(This report) says that our environment is in a poor state and it’s getting worse,” she said. “If we don’t change the laws and the systems that we have to protect it, that decline will continue.”
Ms Plibersek has been given the task of overseeing the reformation of Australia’s environmental laws and remedying species loss while being in charge of signing off on new coal and gas projects.
She may come under pressure over the Albanese government’s handling of the transition away from the fossil fuel industry, given it has for so long been a mainstay of the Australian economy to the detriment of the natural environment.
She told the ABC last month there needed to be an “accommodation” between addressing climate change and growing a strong economy, after she was asked how Labor could simultaneously support gas fracking and environmental conservation.