The ABC’s Four Corners episode ‘Water grab’ has revealed how the Northern Territory’s expanding cotton industry has fuelled the destruction of precious northern savanna, with multiple failures to comply with NT laws, and no enforcement of federal environment laws.

Deforestation for cotton and agriculture is skyrocketing across the territory. As revealed by Four Corners, much of this land clearing does not comply with NT laws that ban commercial cotton being grown on pastoral leases without appropriate permits. Thousands of hectares cleared and earmarked for cotton have also ignored federal environment laws.

Growing cotton causes enormous damage to fragile ecosystems and puts intense pressure on precious ground and river water.

Now is the time to fix this. The environment reform bills are in the Senate now and loopholes in the law can be fixed by requiring that all native vegetation clearing in threatened species habitat undergoes an assessment.

Environment Justice Australia special counsel Danya Jacobs says;

“Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek should not turn a blind eye to deforestation when it’s carried out for big industrial agriculture like cotton. No industry should be above the law”

“This is a systemic failure to enforce federal environment laws that are meant to protect threatened species from exactly this sort of widespread habitat destruction.”

“Despite federal law prohibiting conduct that significantly impacts threatened species without federal assessment, no land clearing on NT pastoral properties has been sent in for this assessment.”

“Thousands of hectares of mapped threatened species habitat have been cleared in recent years, and thousands more are earmarked for bulldozing.”

“Now is the time to fix this. The environment reform bills are in the Senate now, and the government can close this loophole by requiring all native vegetation clearing to undergo an assessment”

“Australia is a deforestation hotspot and it’s driving an extinction crisis, yet our national environment laws aren’t applied to this destructive conduct”

“Our federal environment laws urgently need to deal with deforestation to get this crisis under control”

Ucharonidge Station

The Four Corners episode referred to Ucharonidge Station, a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station.

The owners of Ucharonidge applied to clear almost 5,000ha of native vegetation in 2020 and a further 5,000ha in 2021. Despite the station identifying the known or likely presence of at least six federally-listed threatened or migratory species (or their habitat) in the bushlands earmarked for bulldozing, the station did not refer its plans for environmental impact assessment under national environment laws.

The cleared bushlands were known to contain Gouldian finches, and likely to contain plains death adder, red goshawk and grey falcons, or their habitat. National environment law prohibits conduct likely to significantly impact federally-listed threatened and migratory species without federal assessment and approval.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has the power to ‘call-in' this kind of conduct, but she has not used this power in the NT despite soaring levels of land-clearing for cotton in recent years, including in areas identified by her own Department as known to contain endangered wildlife.

The Environment Centre NT (ECNT) also alleged that Ucharonidge had started clearing unlawfully before the station had been granted the required NT permit under the NT Pastoral Land Act.

Environmental Justice Australia wrote to the Pastoral Land Board and NT Environment Minister on ECNT’s behalf about the unlawful clearing. The NT regulators never took enforcement action over the clearing that took place in breach of NT laws. Nor did the Federal regulator seek to enforce national environment laws to protect threatened species habitat on the property.

Background:

The Northern Territory is home to some of the largest intact savanna on Earth. Sweeping across more than a million kilometres, spectacular savanna woodlands are a vitally important ecosystem stretching across Northern Australia, from Cape York to the Kimberley.

Ancient eucalypts and tall grasses are home to rainbow birds, rare insects, reptiles, mammals and wildflowers. This hidden treasure accounts for 20 per cent of the world’s savanna – right here in our backyard.

Savanna woodlands are a rich, complex and fragile ecosystem. In this bubble of life, each element is intricately connected.

It was once the least damaged and polluted savanna in the world. Now, it's now one of the most vulnerable ecosystems on this continent.

MEDIA CONTACT: Miki Perkins 03 8341 3110, [email protected]