Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today, in this time for senators' statements, to make some comments in relation to the state of Australia's environment. Of course, we know that last week the minister for the environment, Tanya Plibersek, finally released the official State of the environment report, a report that has been hidden from public view since December, a report that, under the previous government, was hidden from Australians on the eve of an election. Why? Well, it's pretty clear, when you look at the report, why the former government, the Morrison government, did not want the Australian people to know what a dire situation Australia's environment is in.

It is code red for nature. That is what this report shows—an extinction crisis looming so large it is becoming more and more difficult to halt. It's a crisis that is fuelled by the climate crisis and global warming. It is compounding the very real impacts of extinction loss, habitat loss and, of course, the climate crisis itself. The report details, in page after page after page, a litany of failures of successive governments, who, under their watch, refused to do what was needed to protect the environment and to ensure that no more species, no more native animals, no more of Australia's environment is lost unnecessarily.

Land clearing, this report shows, is out of control. Native forest logging is pushing some of our most precious species to the brink of no return. All of these, of course, then compound the very real and devastating impacts of climate change and global warming. Between the years 2000 and 2017, 7.7 million hectares of land was cleared in Australia, 93 per cent of which did not even require sign-off by the government of the day. It was simply: 'Out of our hands. Out of our sight. Out of our mind.' And now that habitat is lost forever. This is putting real stress on our animals, on our wildlife and on our environment at large.

Australians are aware. They can see the fact that our environment is under such stress, and they want the government of the day to do better and to do more. It's not good enough just to have an environment department or a minister for the environment; we must have a government that protects the environment. We must have politicians who are willing to stand up and say no to an application for a new coalmine or a big housing development on critical habitat which is going to push our wildlife to the brink of no return.

The big looming issue in this report is the compounding nature of climate change and global warming and the fact that they are making it harder and harder for Australia to reverse the extinction crisis. The report shows that our environment laws are not fit for purpose. It is nonsensical that in 2022 we have a set of rules in this country which allow the environment minister of the day to have an application for a new coal or gas mine on their desk and to make a decision about whether that mine should go ahead or not, whether it should be given environmental approval, yet, before being given the green light, there is no need for information on the climate impact that project is going to have. So, when you hear successive ministers, members of this place and the other, say that a particular project is okay because it's been given environmental approval, remember that none of that approval has required a thought about the impact that the climate pollution will have on the environment or on the species that call that area home.

We drastically need a change to our environment laws. We need laws that are fit for purpose, that are there to protect the environment, not the interests of the big mining corporations, not the interests of big developers. The laws should be there to protect our environment and to stop species loss. We need environment laws that are written to protect the environment and that are enforced. What the State of the environment report shows, and what Graeme Samuel's report two years ago showed, is that even the weak laws that we have are being undermined every single day—overlooked, bargained off, not enforced. We need to put a stop to that. We need a watchdog, a cop on the beat, to make sure that the rules that are in place to protect nature, to look after our wildlife, are actually being upheld and implemented. We need an independent environmental watchdog to enforce those rules. We need an immediate halt to any more critical habitat destruction. Australia is being asked by the rest of the world to take the state of our environment seriously, to hear this code red warning and act. We're being asked to match what other countries around the world are doing, to pledge to stop any further extinction and to protect land and sea, and we need to do it seriously.

This report reveals just how many of our precious Australian animals and other species are on the brink of extinction. It is just devastating and a national shame that the koala is on that list. If we don't change the way we are protecting our environment, we are going to lose the koala. We are going to lose the greater glider. We are going to lose the masked owl. We're going to lose species after species after species until we stop allowing their homes, their habitat, to be destroyed. So we need a moratorium on the destruction of habitat immediately, until we have the right rules in place to put the environment first and not the interests of big corporations and developers.

There's been a lot of talk over the last few days in this building, as the parliament has recommenced, about how seriously this new parliament is going to take the climate crisis. Australians voted overwhelmingly, across all states, across cities, suburbs and regions, for climate action. Part of taking climate action means we need to stop making things worse. We need to stop making pollution worse. We've got a big job ahead of us to reduce the amount of pollution currently being created. The last thing we should be doing is giving the green light to more projects which are going to make pollution levels grow.

A climate trigger in our environment laws, forcing the minister of the day to look at and assess projects on the basis of their climate pollution, and how climate change is going to impact and damage the environment, is a no-brainer, and I look forward to working with people on all sides in this new parliament to garner support and momentum and to get that job done. If we don't, it's not just a report that warns code red; it will be happening, and it is happening, before our very eyes. And it will be on our watch. We are losing time, and we are losing the battle against extinction and the battle against the environment crisis. We have to act now, and we need to work together to do that—a climate trigger, a moratorium on habitat destruction and an independent watchdog to make sure there is a cop on the beat looking after our environment and holding those who destroy it to account.