Statement – The Wilderness Society, 27 August 2020
Word-for-word Abbott-era environment Bill introduced to House
The Wilderness Society’s Suzanne Milthorpe provides the following comments on the introduction of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Streamlining Environmental Approvals) Bill 2020 into Parliament today.
Suzanne Milthorpe said, “It’s hard to see how the Government introducing a Bill—much of which is word-for-word identical to Tony Abbott’s failed 2014 one-stop-shop amendments [see comparison]—isn’t a deliberate breaking of faith with the near 30,000 Australians who have engaged with the independent review of the EPBC Act.
“By putting forward this amendment without proper environmental safeguards, the Morrison Government has shown that it isn’t listening to scientists, it isn’t looking at the evidence and has little interest in community concerns.
“We are looking for a sign, any sign at all that the Government is willing to improve Australia’s environment legislation to better protect Australia’s unique and threatened species and we continue to be disappointed. We had all expected that this Bill would enshrine environmental standards before handing over powers to the states, but again the promised protections have not been delivered.
“Every single time the Government has guaranteed deregulation now, with a vague promise of environmental improvements later. And the later has never come.
“Seven years of coalition government, and four environment ministers later, the Morrison Government still hasn’t put forward a single substantive legislative proposal for how it will address the wildlife extinction crisis.
“Environmentally-minded members of the federal coalition must urgently find a way to demonstrate, with clear, concrete commitments that are quickly met, that their government’s agenda for Australia’s natural environment isn’t just to weaken protections.
“We have a clearly evidenced species extinction crisis, our wildlife has been devastated by the most destructive bushfires on record, the Government’s own independent reviewer has said “the environment and our iconic places are in decline and under increasing threat” and still there is no sign that the Government is serious about doing anything about it.
“We’re calling on the parliament to resist the government’s efforts to rush this bill through, and insist on a full package of reforms that will ensure our environment laws are enforced and effective at turning around Australia’s extinction crisis,” Suzanne concluded.
Media Release – Bob Brown Foundation, 27 August 2020
Morrison’s ecocidal bill ‘will rile Australians’
The Morrison government’s bill handing federal environmental powers to the states and territories is the biggest legislative sell-out of Australia’s environment since federation, Bob Brown Foundation said today.
“This is Scott Morrison handing Australia’s wildlife and wild country and seas to the wolves. The worst exploiters wanted it: Morrison is not just cutting green tape, he is handing them an elephant gun of ecological elimination,” Bob Brown said.
“Had this biocidal bill been in place in earlier years, the Franklin would be dammed, Fraser Island logged, whale flensing would be still ‘creating jobs’ in Western Australia and there would be oil rigs on the Great Barrier Reef. A feature is what is missing after repudiation of Graeme Samuel’s key recommendation for an environmental ‘cop’ or policing agency to enforce national standards. Instead we will get state oversight like that of the Tasmanian Forest Practices Authority which effectively logs and incinerates wildlife-filled old growth forests.”
“Sussan Ley is the minister for disempowering herself. If she and the prime minister really wanted a ‘one stop shop’ for environmental approvals they should have taken powers from the eight states and territories and vested them in Canberra. This scattering of environmental power leaves the corporate exploiters to more easily bulldoze weaker state governments.”
“Australians are proud of our wildlife and environmental heritage. This sell-out by Morrison will be very unpopular. It should be blocked by the Senate. The Greens are strongly opposed. We call on Labor and other parties and independents to oppose the bill.”
“To see how ‘ecological sustainability’ looks when the commonwealth hands it to the states, Mr Morrison should visit a flattened and burnt forest, once full of rare and endangered species, in Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia or Tasmania. This comes from the forests’ environmental management being handed back to the states in 2002. Now the miners, gas frackers, industrial fish farmers and exploiters of national parks for profiteering high-end tourism are being gifted the same licence for ecocide,” Brown said.
“This will rile Australians. It is a recipe for much greater protests, from coast to coast, than we have seen in Australia for decades,” BBF campaign manager Jenny Weber predicted.
“The states and territories are being handed a green dragon while Sussan Ley washes her hands of environmental care,” she said.
Media release – Terri Butler MP, 27 August 2020
FAILED ABBOTT ENVIRONMENT BILL REHASH PUTS ENVIRONMENT, JOBS AND INVESTMENT AT RISK
TERRI BUTLER MP
The Morrison Government has introduced an environment bill which is a rehash of Tony Abbott’s failed 2014 approach putting the environment, jobs and investment at risk.
The Samuel Review is the most significant opportunity for reform in the last 20 years – the Government must get it right.
Scott Morrison has very favourable conditions for reform: an Opposition that has said we will engage constructively, a well-respected Review chair who is working with leaders from agriculture, resources and business, as well as traditional owners, conservationists and academics.
But Scott Morrison is squandering this opportunity by putting up Abbott 2.0. This is an absolute mess.
Our environment needs protection, business needs certainty and Australians need jobs. These changes fail on each count.
Labor has taken a considered approach to reform and constructively engaged with the Samuel Review from the very start.
But the Morrison Government is choosing conflict over considered outcomes. They are putting jobs and investment at risk. Australia can’t afford to allow the alarming environmental decline that we have seen under the Liberals and Nationals.
This backwards-looking failed Abbott law rehash – being pursued under the guise of the pandemic – is yet another broken promise from the Morrison Government.
The model that Professor Samuel proposed in his Interim Report is contingent on the creation of strong Interim National Environmental Standards. And when the government publicly released his interim report in July they said that proposed legislative changes would be accompanied by the standards.
Environment Minister Sussan Ley said the Government would introduce “strong rigorous environmental standards” that had “buy-in across the board” at the same time as introducing legislative change.
The Morrison Government should not pursue amendments until the interim standards are finalised and made available to the people of Australia.
Without national environment standards recognised in law, each state jurisdiction could negotiate different standards into each agreement, which would increase job and investment delays and become a regulatory nightmare.
The Morrison Government should:
- Introduce strong national environmental standards; and
- Establish a genuinely independent ‘cop on the beat’ for Australia’s environment;
- Fix the explosion in unnecessary 510 per cent job and investment delays caused by their massive funding cuts.
Labor’s record
Every major achievement in environmental protection in this nation’s history has been delivered by a Labor government.
Labor’s legacy is that we protected Antarctica, the Daintree, Kakadu, the Great Barrier Reef, the Franklin. We created Landcare, and we created what was at the time the largest network of marine parks in the world. Only Labor has the will and the capacity to protect Australia’s environment.
Liberal and Nationals record of environmental mismanagement
Australia has a jobs crisis and environmental crisis and the Morrison Government is failing on both counts. They have:
- Cut 40% of the funding to the environment department, which predictably led to job and investment delays, mismanagement, and environmental decline;
- Overseen massive delays to jobs and investment, which exploded to 510% under their watch;
- Overseen 79% of decisions being affected by error or being non-compliant. During that time, they have assessed tens of billions of dollars’ worth of projects;
- Overseen unprecedented decline in Australia’s beautiful and precious natural environment.
If Scott Morrison was serious about securing broad support and durable reform, he would not be rehashing Tony Abbott’s failed 2014 bill, breaking his promise on national standards or cherry-picked the interim report of one of Australia’s most experienced business regulators.
