Australia is facing an extinction and pollution crisis. Our current environment laws are too weak to stop companies damaging the people, places and wildlife we love. Nearly 2000 Australian plants, animals and ecosystems are now officially at risk of extinction, and the list keeps growing.
The Labor party has added strong new nature laws and an independent advocate (like an ACCC for the environment) to the draft policy platform it will take to the next federal election.
This is good news, but there's still a hurdle to clear.
Labor party leaders will debate the new nature laws and independent advocate at its National Conference in mid-December. Not everyone in Labor is over the line and vested interests from logging and mining industries will be working furiously behind the scenes trying to stop these laws and institutions becoming a reality.
We urgently need to show Labor leaders just how strong and deep the support for these reforms runs.
Will you write an email to ask Labor leaders to champion new national nature laws and institutions?
We need strong new laws that actually protect life and a national EPA to act as a watchdog and enforce the law. And communities must have the right to a real say.
Together let’s show Bill Shorten, Tanya Plibersek and Tony Burke just how many people care.
Why our current laws aren’t working
They are weak, outdated and:
- Fail to protect our vanishing wildlife, reefs and forests
- Enable loggers, big developers and polluting companies like Adani to destroy our living world – with very little oversight or responsibility to repair their damage
- Prevent concerned communities from having an equal say
- Fail to deliver on our international commitments
We need a new framework of national environment laws to:
- Make the federal government responsible for protecting the air we breathe, our wildlife, our climate and the places we love
- Establish an independent commission to set environmental standards
- Create an independent national Environmental Protection Authority to make sure governments and businesses do the right thing by nature
- Guarantee communities the right to have a say in environmental decisions
Read more: Australia's Extinction Crisis: Protecting Critical Habitat
Blueprint for the Next Generation of Australian Environmental Law
Header image: Annette Ruzicka, MAPgroup