Scientists in this space talk about not just actual extinction but the extinction of experience. Unfortunately, many Australians will go for a walk in the bush and see virtually no animals and think, ‘Well, this is Australia. It is a harsh landscape. There are just not that many animals around or perhaps they are hiding.’ That isn’t true. Our country used to be full of animals. They used to be everywhere until we destroyed it. We have an opportunity to stop that destruction, but the government needs to get the report, pay attention to it and respond with the kinds of measures that it calls for.
Read more...It’s bewildering that in these circumstances, the government has no interest in acting to address Australia’s failed environmental protection framework. Instead it seeks to maintain the status quo –a weak and ineffective set of national standards, with no monitoring and compliance agency to enforce them.
Read more...On the current trajectory, the future for many of our native species, particularly mammals and birds, is bleak. Yet in response to the patent lack of target achievement under the current 5-year Threatened Species Strategy, the Morrison Government has recently announced a new 10-year strategy without additional resources or funding. This is an unacceptable case of kicking the can down the road, and Australia’s native wildlife will pay the price for this neglect.
Read more...Labor has accused the Morrison government of missing a major chance to boost take-up of recycled content in government contracting by opting not to set new rules for procurement.
Read more...The only waste policy change this Government has delivered is the straightforward framework that formalises the ban other countries have imposed on Australia’s waste exports. Yet in the absence of both the infrastructure for increased recycling and the end market for recycled material Australia’s growing waste will inevitably need to be stockpiled or landfilled.
Read more...With Christmas in four days, and the first waste export ban due to start on 1 January, the Morrison Government looks set to fail on the delivery of key targets within its own National Waste Policy Action Plan.
Read more...It is worth starting, when we look at this area understanding the state of play, we do have a waste crisis in this country. Other countries have decided in the last 18 months or so, perhaps a bit longer than that, that they’re not going to accept waste from Australia and that’s forced us all, and particularly the general public, to realise that we’ve been kidding ourselves a little bit when it comes to how we deal with waste and resource management to a significant degree.
Read more...If it’s too much to ask that the government do their job when it comes to environmental protection, they could try to stop actively making it worse: stop cutting resources to the environment department; stop weakening our environmental protection framework; stop ignoring the reality of climate change; and stop undermining the efforts of Australia’s scientists and conservation sector.
Read more...This month’s data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Waste Account shows that Australia’s waste and recycling performance has worsened at a time when the Morrison Government claims to be showing national and global leadership.
Read more...The Minister needs to explain how from now going forward, if ever traditional owner calls her office, it doesn’t end up being a case of them being told you will get a phone call back from an advisor who’s on leave, who doesn’t get contacted, who never makes that phone call.
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