The Climate Council expressed deep disappointment at the Albanese Government's last minute decision to weaken Australia's national environment laws.
"The Prime Minister promised to strengthen our broken environmental laws this term, instead he has weakened them," said Climate Council CEO Amanda McKenzie.
After abandoning reform to the national environmental laws in 2024, the Prime Minister's controversial rushed changes to the national environment law which give a special carve out to the Tasmanian salmon industry, passed the Parliament last night with Coalition support.
"Providing a carve out for one industry will embolden others to ask for special treatment to get around important environmental protections.
"Environmental protections are there to ensure that all Australians can enjoy a healthy environment, with clean water and air. These protections are fundamentally weakened if industries which apply political pressure are rewarded with get out of jail free cards.
"Australians suffer if we have weak and incomplete environmental protections. Australians are experiencing the harmful impacts of climate pollution in turbocharged fires, floods and extreme weather. The environment that supports us all has been catastrophically damaged by these events as well, with billions of animals killed and millions of hectares of habitat lost. This is threatening lives and livelihoods by wrecking the ecosystems we all depend on.
"The greatest environmental risk to Australians long term is climate change, and our environment laws do not currently consider the impact of climate pollution. In fact, 740 fossil fuel developments have been approved under the laws, releasing billions of tonnes of climate pollution which puts our children's future in grave danger.
"It is a real shame that Labor's climate record is marred by approving 25 fossil fuel projects and failing to fix our environmental laws, because they have made strong progress on renewable power and storage, pollution limits on industry, and clean transport.
"The coal and gas industries are hell bent on ramming through many extremely damaging projects, described as climate pollution bombs. Inevitably they will be emboldened by this unfortunate decision.
"All political players should pledge, prior to the election, to strengthen Australia's environmental laws in the first 12 months in office, including ensuring a safe and liveable climate is at the centre of decision-making about all environmental approvals."
The Climate Council has released a hard hitting national ad campaign today featuring former Fire Chief Greg Mullins. It makes the case for why climate must be at the top of the agenda for all Australians this election.
About us:
The Climate Council is Australia's leading community-funded climate change communications organisation. We provide authoritative, expert and evidence-based advice on climate change to journalists, policymakers, and the wider Australian community.
