Labor Govt Was Supposed To Be Light-Years Beyond Morrison's Pathetic Crew; Two Years In, Well, You Know . . .
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The report noted the World Economic Forum’s conclusion that environmental degradation was a threat to humanity that could “bring about societal collapses with long-lasting and severe consequences”. Plibersek declared Australians had voted for the environment in 2022, she had heard the message and there wasn’t another minute to waste. She would aim to develop new nature legislation, including “clear national environmental standards with explicit targets around what we value as a country, and what the laws need to protect”, in 2023. “I won’t be putting my head in the sand,” she said. “Under Labor the environment is back on the priority list.”
Given the entrenched failures she inherited, including a gutted environment department and continual underfunding of nature protection, it was an ambitious promise. But Plibersek was a senior minister and a proven communicator with a significant public profile. Maybe this time would be different. More than two years on, that hasn’t proven the case. There have been moments of modest progress but the Albanese government has not lived up to the minister’s early rhetoric. Instead we have seen a familiar story. The government accepted the recommendations of a review by former consumer watchdog Graeme Samuel and convened a consultation process with environment and industry groups about the design of the laws, arguing they had to agree before things could progress.
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The Coalition, which needs to win big in the west to have a chance at being returned to government, has embraced this stance. Peter Dutton told the minerals week conference he will be the industry’s “best friend” if he becomes prime minister by removing “regulatory roadblocks” and halving the time it takes to approve developments. This position doesn’t necessarily have to be completely at odds with improving nature protection but it plainly is when the crisis in Australian nature is dismissed without evidence. Dutton told the mining conference: “Nobody here in this country or, indeed, around the world could argue that we have inadequate environmental protections.”
Of course, many people with far more expertise than the opposition leader do argue this. And they have evidence to back it up. More than 2,200 threatened species are listed as being at risk of extinction, and that number has been rising rapidly. Nineteen ecosystems across the continent have been assessed as showing signs of collapse or near collapse. The risk of mass extinctions this century is documented and real. Pretending the problem doesn’t exist won’t make it go away or stop it badly affecting people and wildlife in the decades ahead. The failure to take the environment seriously and to mostly consider it an issue for Greens’ voters is embedded deep in Australian public life.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/commentisfree/2024/sep/17/the-environment-was-meant-to-be-back-on-the-priority-list-under-labor-instead-weve-seen-a-familiar-story