URGENT
Australia's environment laws on the chopping block
Right now, we have serious concerns the Albanese government is about to rush through changes to Australia’s environment laws that could gut important community rights to challenge destructive projects.
You may have seen the news – Prime Minister Albanese plans to fast-track contentious legislation through parliament next week, while the media’s distracted by the budget, to shield Tasmania’s salmon industry from full environmental assessment and legal scrutiny.
But worse – it has been reported that this EPBC reform may have broader implications than just salmon farming.
As community lawyers, we’re concerned this quiet amendment could be a backdoor way to achieve alarming, wide-scale rollbacks of environmental protections in federal law.
We have serious concerns these plans will weaken community rights to challenge decisions on all kinds of destructive projects – from new coal and gas projects to deforestation to salmon farms.
On the chopping block is the very section of the EPBC Act our client, the Environment Council of Central Queensland, used in their landmark Living Wonders legal action involving 18 reconsideration requests, asking the Environment Minister to consider significant new evidence of the climate harm to our environment of many of the coal and gas projects then on her desk.
It’s the same legal avenue Greenpeace is currently using to request the Minister consider significant new evidence of the risk of harm to Scott Reef from Woodside’s North West Shelf gas facility extension.
Ditto the Australia Institute, currently using this part of our environment laws to trigger reconsideration of new scientific evidence on the risk of extinction to the Maugean skate from salmon farming at Macquarie Harbour.
Of course, it’s most inconvenient for industry to have their plans properly assessed when they involve significant risks of causing extinction, ecosystem collapse and climate harm.
Inconvenient. But essential.
This is democratic due process – and exactly why we have environment laws.
If you can, please send the PM a quick email urging him to protect our laws and strengthen public participation – not gut and silence.
