A key national Standard meant to protect threatened species and nationally significant places fails to deliver the clear, enforceable safeguards promised under Australia’s new environment laws, legal experts say. 

The National Environmental Standard for Matters of National Environmental Significance (MNES), made today, was supposed to determine how national laws protect animals, plants, and significant places, such as World Heritage sites and important water resources. Environmental Justice Australia (EJA)’s analysis of the Standard found it falls short of the clear environmental outcomes and thresholds recommended by the Samuel Review. 

This weak Standard raises the stakes as the federal government looks to give states a greater role in environmental approvals through bilateral agreements, with the native logging industry in Tasmania an immediate test. 

Environmental Justice Australia Co-CEO Nicola Rivers said:

“This Standard was meant to provide a strong, enforceable safeguard at the heart of Australia’s new environment laws. Instead, it falls short of the clear, outcomes-based protections recommended by the Samuel Review. 

“The rules are too vague and leave decision-makers too much wriggle room. Following the process can count as getting the right result for nature. Those are not the same thing. 

“Weak Standards make what happens next even more critical. They were meant to provide the guardrails as more environmental decision making is devolved to the states. These Standards cannot become the blueprint for weaker protections across the country. 

“Tasmania is the immediate concern. As native forest logging moves under national environment laws, the federal government is looking to a bilateral agreement that could give Tasmania a greater role in approvals.  

"The government must ensure bilateral agreements contain strong, enforceable safeguards and don’t become a different version of the Regional Forest Agreements that allowed destructive native forest logging to avoid federal assessment for decades.” 

EJA's Standards scorecard: www.envirojustice.org.au/environmental-standards-scorecard 

Media contact: Jessa Latona, 03 8341 3110, [email protected]