The Albanese Government has today announced they will dump their already overdue environmental law reform package in a capitulation to polluters, the fossil fuel lobby and logging corporations.
Greens spokesperson for the environment, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, will chair a Senate inquiry tomorrow into the extinction crisis and environment laws:
"This is a broken promise that sells-out our environment and the millions of Australians who want faster climate action.
"The Government has dumped their election promise to reform Australia's environment laws and instead rolled-over for the fossil fuel industry who want faster and easier approvals for their polluting and damaging new coal and gas projects.
"Caving into the miners, loggers and big polluters will only leave our environment vulnerable to further destruction. Today's announcement does nothing to save our koalas, native forests or the Great Barrier Reef.
"Two of the greatest threats to Australia's wildlife are habitat destruction and climate change. The Government's scaled back "nature positive" plan does nothing to address these threats and halt extinctions.
"An environment protection agency without teeth is not a substitute for the powerful watchdog experts have called for. A body with no powers of enforcement cannot even take law-breakers to court, let alone bring the level of reform required to fix the biodiversity crisis.
"While more environmental data and offsets auditing is welcome, this is not reform. This is something Australians expect the Government should already be doing.
"The mining industry and big developers have spent two years trying to weaken laws needed to protect forests and the climate. We need the Environment Minister to stand up for nature, not appease the fossil fuel and logging lobby.
"The Greens will not support any moves to water down already weak environment laws. We remain ready to legislate real solutions that protect the environment and the climate from vested interests and pollution."
Further background:
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Labor promised to bring its "Nature Positive Plan" to Parliament by the end of 2023.
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Today's broken promise has been slammed by environment & climate groups
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Sarah Hanson-Young will chair a Senate Inquiry tomorrow in Canberra into the extinction crisis & our environment laws
