ECCO has been coordinating and writing the Earth First column in the Central Western Daily for two decades. Earth First is a primary vehicle for ECCO to create awareness and educate the community on environmental issues that impact on the Orange Local Government Area and more widely. ECCO acknowledges the opportunity and support that the Central Western Daily provides. A recent Earth First column is reproduced below.
Who dictates our environmental laws?
By Nick King
Published: 21 September 2024
From the 8th to the 10th of October, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek will be hosting the Global Nature Positive Summit in Sydney. This has been described as “an event which will accelerate collective action to drive investment in nature and strengthen activities to protect our environment”. The Summit has the potential to be embarrassing for the Minister, because she may bring little to the table herself.
On coming to office in 2022, the Labor government pledged to rectify the years of environmental neglect by the previous Coalition Government. In 2020, prior to Labor taking office, the Samuel Report pronounced the existing legislation designed to protect our environment to be unfit for purpose. Ms. Plibersek pledged to overhaul the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act to strengthen our environmental laws, making them effective in dealing with current environmental problems which include species extinction, native forest clearing and climate change.
It is sad to report that, despite attempts by the Government and the Minister, little has been achieved in the area of biodiversity protection. Efforts by the Minister have been opposed vehemently by the Opposition as well as mining and development interests, plus the media that support them.
An example of the intense pushback from mining and development supported by the Opposition is their reaction to the proposal currently before the Upper House to establish an independent environmental regulator. To be named Environmental Protection Australia (EPA), the regulator is referred to by Minister Plibersek as “a tough cop on the beat.” This proposal is currently stalled in the Senate, as the suggested powers are too tough in the eyes of the Coalition and the miners and developers. On the other hand, the Greens don’t think the proposal goes far enough. Their demands include a climate trigger for mining and development proposals, and the end nationally to native forest logging.
The Albanese Government requires support either from the Coalition or from the Greens and the crossbench if we are to have an EPA. Whether it will be a tough cop on the beat remains to be seen. What also remains to be seen is whether Australia’s environmental agenda will be controlled by genuine legislation that is designed to protect our environment, or by the interests of the mining and development sector. Hopefully this issue will be result in a positive result, worthy of the host of the Nature Positive Summit.