The future of our environment hangs ‘in the balance’

Media release
Friday, August 20, 2010

The Wilderness Society today released its final assessment of the Parties’ policies on the environment this Election.

Our conclusion is that the two biggest parties, the ALP and the Liberal-National Coalition, have been missing-in-action on the environment this election. Their leadership on national environmental priorities has been seriously lacking.

Should the Greens win additional Senate seats this election, the future of our environment and national leadership on it will clearly hang on the balance of power in the Senate.

Our final assessment shows that the Greens are way ahead on environmental policy.  There is a slim but nonetheless important margin of difference between the two other major parties, with Labor ahead of the Coalition on policy and commitment.

Taking into account last minute policy commitments and public statements:

• The Greens’ policies remain very strong across a range of environmental areas and they have improved their rating on Indigenous Conservation with an important new policy and funding commitments
• Labor’s position on the environment is not very good overall, lacking leadership and positive policies in some areas, but with some moderately good policies in others
• The Liberal-National Coalition’s policies have rated poorly, with a number of negative positions that threaten to take environmental protections backwards. Their latest announcements on marine conservation received a fail mark

We urge people to consider the parties’ performance, policy and positions on the environment, to be informed when voting this weekend.

Regardless of who forms the next Federal government, the Wilderness Society will continue to advocate nationally for environment protection from day one of the new parliamentary term.  All parties will be on notice that the community expects national leadership on the critical issues that affect us all, such as addressing climate change, management of rivers and water, and protection and management of our natural resources and heritage.

The Wilderness Society is Australia’s largest conservation group and is politically non-aligned. Its assessment of party conservation policies was conducted to inform our 50,000 members, many other supporters, and the broader public of the choices before them this election.