Environmental law reform
Senate Inquiry
Our environment laws are one of the most important tools we have for protecting our environment.
Good laws make it so much easier to protect wildlife on the brink of extinction, to keep forests standing, our air and water clean, polluters in check, communities meaningfully involved.
And weak, broken and outdated laws make everything so much harder.
That's why the once in a generation reform to our environment laws currently underway could not be more important.
Right now, a Senate Inquiry is accepting public submissions on proposed reforms – and you can have a say about some important changes to our nature laws.
The changes have already passed through the lower house – meaning the Senate is our best chance to see them strengthened and expanded.
With our submission guide, you can make an impactful submission in no time.
We’ve outlined what’s happening, what the issues are, and what needs to change – so all you need to do is pull a quick submission together and send it off.
As environmental lawyers, every day, we work within the frameworks and limitations of environmental legislation.
Are big destructive projects assessed or just waved through? Are there meaningful consequences for environmental harm? Who makes decisions? Who has a say in those decisions? Who can challenge them when they’re not based on science or have unintended consequences?
But the environment laws we’re working with right now haven't changed since John Howard introduced them 25 years ago.
Under these laws:
- Australia’s Environment Ministers have approved 740 coal and gas mines
- We now have one of the worst extinction rates on Earth
- We have become a global deforestation hotspot
For more than four years since reforms were announced, countless people like you have made submissions, sent emails, called Ministers’ offices, and spread the word for new nature laws that work.
Now, it’s time to do it again.
Because the stakes could not be higher.
The climate and extinction crises cannot wait.
Environmental law reform doesn’t have a huge public profile right now. There’s very little media coverage of the Parliamentary debate last week, and it’s unlikely dinner table conversation.
But getting these reforms right is one of the most important things we can do to protect our environment.
This is a once in a generation opportunity to fix our national environment laws.
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