The continuous prevarication and callous disregard for any policy which might provide a sustainable future for our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren makes the Liberal and National political parties a danger to us all.........
The
Guardian, 9
May 2019:
Scott Morrison’s office
has declined to say what legislation he was referring to when he said he had
“been taking action” on a
landmark UN report about the extinction of a million different species.
On Monday, the UN
released a comprehensive, multi-year report that revealed human
society was under threat from the unprecedented extinction of the
Earth’s animals and plants. The agriculture minister, David Littleproud, said
the report “scared him”, during a debate on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Morrison
responded to the report saying: “We already introduced and passed legislation
through the Senate actually dealing with that very issue in the last week of
the parliament. We’ve been taking action on that.”
However, no legislation
regarding animal conservation or the environment passed in the last week of
parliament.
When asked what the
legislation was, the prime minister’s office did not reply. The office of the
environment minister, Melissa Price, also did not respond when asked what
legislation Morrison was referring to.
The only legislation
regarding animals that passed within the last few months is the
Industrial Chemicals Bill 2017, which set new regulations on testing
cosmetics on animals.
However, it was passed
by both houses on 18 February – not in the last week of parliament, which was
in April.
Neither the prime
minister nor the environment minister responded to clarify if this was the bill
Morrison was referring to, or whether he made an error.
Tim Beshara, the federal
policy director of the Wilderness Society, said Morrison appeared to have
“alluded to a bill that doesn’t exist”.
“The last bill to pass the Senate from the
environment portfolio was about changing the board structure of the Great
Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority in 2018,” he said.
“It looks like the prime
minister of Australia is so desperate to move the debate off the environment as
an issue that he has alluded to a bill that doesn’t exist so that journalists
would stop asking questions about it.”…..
On Wednesday, Morrison
also railed against the expansion of environmental regulations, calling them
“green tape”.
He told the Sydney
Morning Herald the
expansion of “green tape” – like native vegetation laws – was delaying projects
like mining and “costs jobs”.
“[Labor] want to
hypercharge an environment protection authority which will basically interfere
and seek to slow down and prevent projects all around the country,” he said.
Beshara said the timing
of this with the mass extinction report showed “excellent comedic timing”.
“What he is calling
‘green tape’, most Australians would call basic environmental protections,” he
said. “I don’t expect the prime minister to know their numbats from their
bandicoots, but I do expect them to know what bills their government has
passed, and to respond to a globally significant UN report like this with the
seriousness it deserves.”
The
Guardian, 9
May 2019:
Most clearing of
Australian habitat relied on by threatened species is concentrated in just 12
federal electorates, nine of which are held by the Coalition, an
analysis has found.
University of Queensland
scientists found more than 90% of the threatened species habitat lost since the
turn of the century has been in six electorates in Queensland, two each in NSW
and Western Australia and one in Tasmania and the Northern Territory. Most of
the land-clearing in Queensland has been to create
pasture.
The study, commissioned
by the Australian Conservation Foundation, was released following a United
Nations global assessment that found biodiversity is being lost at an
unprecedented rate, with one million species at risk of extinction. The report
warns the decline in native life could have implications for human populations
across the globe.
Threatened species
habitat loss, by federal electorates
Showing the percentage
of habitat loss used by threatened species
 |
| Source: ACF |
The research found the
greatest loss of threatened species habitat had been in the agriculture
minister David Littleproud’s electorate of Maranoa, in southern Queensland.
Nearly two million hectares, or 43%, has been cleared since 2000, when the
federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act
was introduced. Among the 85 threatened species affected are the koala, the
greater bilby, the black-throated finch and the long-nosed potoroo.
Maranoa is followed on
the list by Kennedy, home to the maverick independent Bob Katter, the Liberal
Rick Wilson’s Western Australian seat of O’Connor and Capricornia, a marginal
electorate held by the LNP’s Michelle Landry.
The environment minister
Melissa Price’s vast electorate of Durack, which covers nearly two-thirds of
Western Australia, is seventh, with more than 300,000 hectares lost.
Other seats on the list
are Flynn, Parkes, Leichhardt, Lingiari, Farrer, Dawson and Lyons.
James Watson, the
director of the university’s centre for biodiversity and conservation science,
said Australia was sleep-walking through a worsening extinction crisis.
“These results show the
laws we have to protect our wonderful natural heritage are not working and that
is a significant failure of government,” he said.
The Australian
Conservation Foundation’s nature policy analyst, James Trezise, said the next
Australian government must invest in the recovery of threatened species and
introduce strong environment laws overseen by an independent national regulator
if it was serious about reversing the decline in native wildlife…..
Australia has the highest
rate of mammal extinction in the world over the past 200 years. It
is considered
one of 17 “megadiverse” countries, which share just 10% of global land but
70% of biological diversity. A green group study found funding to the national
environment budget has been reduced
by a third since the Coalition was elected.
Habitat loss on the NSW North Coast
Richmond electorate held by Labor MP Justine Elliot - 710 ha loss
Page electorate held by Nats MP Kevin Hogan - 16,725 ha loss
Cowper electorate held by Nats MP Luke Hartsuyker until April 2019 - 5,159 ha loss
Lyne electorate held by Nats MP David Gillespie - 6,181 ha loss
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