Will you send a quick email to the Prime Minister so his team knows there’s an enormous wave of voters who are watching closely and demanding action for nature?
In a frustratingly undemocratic act, the office of the Prime Minister is not taking phone calls right now.
But they are watching social media and their inboxes closely to see what the people want.
Together, we need to rapidly tell Prime Minister Albanese that his only option is to work together with the Greens and crossbench, to pass four (in our view, essential) reforms to our national environment laws.
WHAT ARE THE URGENT REFORMS?
The EPBC Act is Australia's national environment law. We're calling on the Senate to work together on four urgent amendments to –
- Close logging exemptions and loopholes, and actually assess plans for deforestation to protect critical habitats for threatened wildlife
- Consider climate change in environmental assessments.
- Include First Nations knowledge in environmental assessment and decision making.
- Create an EPA with integrity, led by an independent board and clear objectives to protect nature.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Once in a generation opportunity to get this right.
Our national nature laws are broken and full of holes. Extinctions are sky rocketing, deforestation is rampant, and our laws are failing to properly address the climate crisis.
Earlier this year, the Albanese Government announced it would fragment and delay its full suite of proposed reforms, opting instead to introduce them in stages.
The government’s bills were voted through the lower house on 4 July, without any of the amendments proposed by independent MPs that would have addressed their glaring shortcomings, like removing the exemption from our national nature laws for native forest logging, and compelling lawless land-clearing in the north to undergo impact assessment and obtain federal approval.
The bills were then referred to a Senate committee for inquiry, and debate has been postponed until the committee has handed down their report.
Next week, the Senate will receive the inquiry report into new nature laws and will likely begin debating the bills that represent the first stage of new nature laws in Australia.
This debate will be the final sprint in years of advocating for bold new nature laws, and likely our last opportunity to shape these laws in this electoral cycle.
