Liberal environment announcement: Band-Aid to a gaping wound

3 May 2019

The Wilderness Society provides the following response to the Liberal’s belated environment announcement of a grab bag of various grants. 

The Wilderness Society’s National Campaigns Director, Lyndon Schneiders, said: “We’ve been telling all parties, for several years now, that voters across the political spectrum want leadership on the environment. It’s been of latent concern—but a barrage of fish kills, reports of species extinctions and unprecedented fires devastating ancient forests has elevated the issue into a salient campaign issue.

“The Liberals’ belated grab bag of green-grants is an admission that they realise voters don’t trust them to deal with the environment, and they are scrambling for something positive to say in this space. But after six years of attacks on 'green tape’ and ‘green lawfare’, massive budget cuts and Environment Ministers who act urgently under mining industry pressure and act slowly to protect endangered species, you can see why voters might be sceptical.

“The environment is an issue at this election because the crisis is genuine, and because people are worried about the future of their own community and beyond. It takes more than Band-Aids to deal with the gaping wound that is the extinction crisis in Australia.

“We urgently need environmental law reform and an independent EPA with resources to get to the job done, or this crisis will continue to fester and worsen. On Monday evening, a global report—the IPCC-equivalent for nature—will be released and it won’t be pretty. Australia will be confirmed as having among the worst track records for extinction and environmental loss on the planet.

“We should be the gold medallist in protecting our natural heritage, but under the Coalition Government we’ve solidified our position as the gold medallists for extinction. 

“We’ve run our biggest election campaign in years because we are running out of time to deal with the crisis in nature. Our teams of volunteers have knocked on 7,265 homes and made nearly 15,000 calls into the seats of Bonner and Reid alone, and 60% of the people we engage with are signing our pledge to end extinction with new nature laws,” he concluded.   

Contact

Media Contact: Tim Beshara, 0437 878 786.   

Authorised by L. Schneiders on behalf of The Wilderness Society Ltd, 132 Davey Street, Hobart Tasmania 7000.