Email Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek for nature laws that really work | Call on Minister Plibersek to create environment laws that actually work

Email Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek for nature laws that really work

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Dear Minister Plibersek,

I write to you as a concerned citizen who cares deeply about nature.

Australia’s environment is in a state of decline, and our national environment laws are fundamentally failing. I thank you for listening to the widespread calls to overhaul the EPBC Act, and for your commitment to create a new framework of laws that better protect our environment.

Your government’s plans for overhaul are an important step in the right direction.

I am concerned they do not go far enough if we are to really stop environmental damage, protect nature, and end extinction.

Importantly, there are six elements to the draft laws which the government must get right as an urgent priority, and with full commitment, to truly turn around our trajectory of destruction.

1) For the new National Environmental Standards be truly effective and protect nature, the full suite of Standards must be developed by independent experts as an urgent priority, so their impact can be fully assessed. Critically, they must apply to all industries, including forestry, from their introduction.

2) Our new nature laws must truly value and incorporate the rights, knowledge and culture of First Nations people. We welcome the government’s proposal to introduce new stand-alone federal cultural heritage legislation but believe the whole framework of our national environmental laws must recognise that, as the ongoing custodians of this land for over 65,000 years, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander traditional knowledge is integral to protecting and caring for the environment.

3) National Environmental Standards need to be backed by a genuinely independent Federal Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and significant funding, including for recovering threatened species. Our new laws will only work if they are properly resourced.

4) New laws must curb climate damage. Our climate is breaking down, and this is a key driver of extinction in Australia and around the world. Climate impacts must be explicitly and fully integrated into environmental decision making. All projects seeking approval must also disclose their Scope 3 emissions for assessment.

5) Communities must have the right to participate in and challenge government decisions, through mechanisms like merits review and third-party independent enforcement of our laws. Environmental decision making must be transparent and accountable, and this includes ensuring communities have a legal voice to stand up for our environment.

6) To achieve zero new extinctions, the new federal laws need a strong conservation planning framework and must ensure offsets cannot be used as payments for destruction. To properly protect critical habitat, a land clearing trigger should be introduced to require the environmental assessment of land clearing proposals.
 
The stakes for our environment are astronomical. We live in one of the most biodiverse places on the planet – yet have one of the worst extinction records in the world.

We have a fundamental responsibility to look after the incredible places, plants and animals that make this continent so special.

Minister, you have set an ambitious and necessary goal to end extinction. It is time for action that matches the scale of that ambition.

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