The Morrison Coalition Government, aided and abetted by the NSW Coalition Government and industry is pressing ahead with dismantling New South Wales environmental protections by omission & commission.
Here are just five examples.....
The
Oops, my bad! Defence
The
Age,
10 May 2020:
One
of NSW's major thermal coal miners has admitted it submitted
inaccurate figures on the carbon emissions impact of its fuel in an
environmental declaration to the state government.
Centennial
Coal stated in its submission for an extension of its Angus Place
coal mine near Lithgow that burning its coal would produce 80
kilograms of carbon dioxide per tonne. Similar mines – including
two of its own – actually cause 30 times more emissions, or 2.4
tonnes of CO2 per tonne of coal.
"Absolutely,
we stuffed up," Katie Brassil, the company's spokeswoman said.
"Our consultants got it wrong and so we got it wrong."
The
assessment of emissions resulting from burning fossil fuels has
become a sensitive one in NSW after approvals for two projects were
rejected because of the impact of so-called Scope 3 or downstream
emissions resulting from burning the product……
Don’t
Look Here, Look Over There!
Channel
9 News,
9 May 2020:
A
controversial plan for a US company to mine coal beneath a Sydney
drinking water dam has been approved by the New South Wales state
government while focus was on COVID-19.
Woronora
reservoir, an hour's drive south of the CBD, is part of a system
which supplies water to more than 3.4 million people in Greater
Sydney.
The
approval will allow Peabody Energy to send long wall mining machines
450 metres below the earth's surface to crawl along coal seams
directly below the dam.
Dr
Kerryn Phelps says the fact the decision was made "under the
cover of coronavirus" is "unfathomable".
NSW
has spent 12 of the last 20 years in drought, with record low
rainfall plunging much of the state into severe water shortage last
year.
"We
know about the potential for catastrophe," Dr Phelps told
9News.com.au.
"We
just cannot let this [decision] go unchallenged."…..
Washing
Their Hands Of The Problems They Caused
The Sydney Morning Herald,
9 May 2020:
Experts
warn the Morrison government is not using its legal powers to protect
wildlife from devastating bushfires, which killed billions of animals
in the summer.
Under
international law the Commonwealth is responsible for maintaining the
biodiversity of World Heritage Areas. Under federal law, it’s also
responsible for protecting threatened species listed under the
Environment Protection Biodiversity Act. But experts say the
Commonwealth is yet to fulfil its responsibilities.
A
wombat in the charred remains of a Kangaroo Valley
bushfire.CREDIT:WOLTER PEETERS
Environment
minister Sussan Ley has argued states and territories have "primary"
responsibility for wildlife. But environmental law expert, University
of Tasmania professor Jan McDonald, said the environment minister is
legally obliged to work with states to prevent bushfire damage to
threatened species and World Heritage Areas.
A
spokesman for Ms Ley said "other than Commonwealth-managed
National Parks [such as Kakadu and Uluru-Kata Tjuta], natural
disaster preparedness and response planning is led by states and
territories as part of their role as the primary regulators of
Australia’s plants and animals."….
Rigging
The Books
The
Guardian,
8 May 2020:
The
federal government has stopped listing major threats to species under
national environment laws, and plans to address listed threats are
often years out of date or have not been done at all.
Environment
department documents released under freedom of information laws show
the government has stopped assessing what are known as “key
threatening processes”, which are major threats to the survival of
native wildlife.
Conservationists
say it highlights the dysfunctional nature of Australia’s
environmental framework, which makes aspects of wildlife protection
optional for government.
The
Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act is being reviewed, a
once-a-decade requirement under the legislation, and there are calls
for greater accountability rules to be built into Australia’s
environmental laws.
It
follows longstanding criticism that the act is failing to curb
extinction.
‘An
unacceptable excuse’
In
a series of reports since 2018, Guardian Australia has uncovered
multiple failures including delays in listing threatened species and
habitats, threatened species funding being used for projects that do
not benefit species, critical habitat not being protected, and
recovery actions for species not being adopted or implemented.
The
act lists threats such as feral cats, land clearing and climate
change as key threatening processes that push native plants and
animals towards extinction.
Once
a threat is listed, the environment minister decides whether a plan –
known as a threat abatement plan – should be adopted to try to
reduce the impact of the threat on native species.
But
a 2019 briefing document shows the department has stopped
recommending the government’s threatened species scientific
committee assess new key threatening processes for potential listing.
“Addressing
threats to nature ... should not be treated as a luxury
Evan
Quartermain”
Among
its reasons given is that the department has limited resources to
support the work.
The
document says key threatening processes have “limited regulatory
influence” – that they have little effect – and the department
has limited capacity to support assessments of them. Because of this,
the department did not recommend any of the key threatening processes
put forward “as priorities for assessment”….
Quick,
Before They Notice!
The
Guardian, 23 April 2020:
The
environment minister, Sussan Ley, has flagged the government may
change Australia’s national environment laws before a review is
finished later this year.
Ley
said she would introduce “early pieces of legislation” to
parliament if she could to “really get moving with reforming and
revitalising one of our signature pieces of environmental
legislation”.
It
follows business groups and the government emphasising the need to
cut red tape as part of the economic recovery from the coronavirus
crisis, and comes as the businessman Graeme Samuel chairs an
independent statutory review of the Environment Protection and
Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act. An interim report is due in
June, followed by a final report in October.
When
the review was announced, the government said it would be used to
“tackle green tape” and speed up project approvals.
Environmental
organisations have stressed the need for tougher environmental
protections to stem Australia’s high rate of extinction. Australia
has lost more than 50 animal and 60 plant species in the past 200
years and recorded the highest rate of mammalian extinction in the
world over that period.
Ley
said, with the interim report due by the middle of the year, she
expected Samuel would “in the course of the review, identify a
range of measures that we can take to prevent unnecessary delays and
improve environmental standards”.
“Where
there are opportunities to make sensible changes ahead of the final
EPBC review report, I will be prepared to do so,” she said.
On
Thursday, Ley and the prime minister, Scott Morrison, said work was
already under way to speed up environmental assessments of projects
and that the number of on time “key decisions” in the EPBC
process had improved from 19% in the December quarter to 87% in the
March quarter…..
An
environment department spokesman said key decisions covered three
items in the assessment process: the decision on whether a project
requires assessment under the act, the decision on what assessment
method will be used, and the final decision on whether or not to
approve the project.....
