It was an amazing turn out and shows that people do care about nature and want to know more about how they can protect the species and places that they love.
Matt Ruchel from VNPA talked about the crisis that we are currently facing with respect to nature protection in Victoria focusing on the continuing decline of our threatened species and the main threats that they are facing. I provided an overview of the existing legislative framework under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act and a brief summary of our thoughts on the government’s proposals to change the law, which is currently being consulted on. Juliet LeFeuvre from EV talked about the political process involved in changing the FFG Act and gave some tips about how people can advocate for change.
The main purpose of the event was to encourage as many people as possible to write submissions to the open consultation about the government’s proposals to reform the FFG Act.
If everyone who registered and attended the event wrote a submission to the government with his or her views on how to make the FFG Act an effective and efficient law that actually protects nature, then we think that would send an incredibly strong signal to the government that people do care about nature, and they want strong laws to protect it.
Submissions close on 28 March 2017, please do tell the government what you think! For our briefing paper on the consultation, see here.