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Wilderness Society in the Media
Media highlights
Check out some of the Wilderness Society's most impactful media mentions.
The Guardian - How badly do Tasmanians want to protect nature? The state election may provide answers
19 March 2024 - Alice Hardinge, state campaign manager for the Wilderness Society Tasmania, says it is increasingly clear that some politicians are prepared to ignore people who cared about nature, but Tasmanians ultimately expected the state’s “precious places” to be protected.
“What is at stake is worth far more than cheap politics.”
Newcastle Weekly - NSW praised as first state to ban offshore oil and gas in its coastal waters
18 March 2024 - The NSW government passed a bill that will ban offshore oil and gas in its coastal waters, making it the first Australian state to do so.
Victoria Jack, Campaigns Manager for the Wilderness Society NSW, said, "It’s not so long ago that a legislated ban on offshore oil and gas mining would have seemed unimaginable.
“The fact that we are here now shows that a better future is possible when governments are accountable to the community instead of the fossil fuel lobby."
The Saturday Paper - Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ low bow to fossil fuels
16 March 2024 - Fern Cadman, Fossil Fuel Industry campaigner for Wilderness Society, says the government must regulate petroleum producers and not just rubber stamp their activities.
“The current rules for community consultation are exactly what the offshore fossil fuel industry called for and were given by the former Coalition government,” Cadman says.
“But now that First Nations people and communities are exercising their right to a fair say about oil and gas projects that will impact them, those very same companies want the current government to rewrite the rules.”
The Age - ‘Not a great legacy’: Troubled state-owned VicForests to close within months
13 March 2024 - Court proceedings revealed that state-owned logging agency VicForests would wind up on 30 June 2024.
Matt Landolfo, Campaigns Manager for Wilderness Society Victoria, said, "The end of VicForests is a welcome and necessary step towards the protection and restoration of Victoria’s globally-significant native forests. But, the restoration task left in VicForests’ wake is huge."
Yahoo - Camper's shock discovery after photographing rare swift parrots in remote forest
10 March 2024 - During the summer of 2022/23 Billy Rowe eagerly watched and photographed a flock of critically endangered swift parrots congregating in a remote Tasmanian forest slated for logging. Now, one year on, the forest has been destroyed by the state owned logging agency Forestry Tasmania, despite the threatened status of the birds.
"It is no secret that habitat destruction is the biggest threat to the swift parrot right now. If we do not protect forests like this now, this iconic parrot will swiftly become extinct,” said Alice Hardinge, Campaigns Manager for Wilderness Society Tasmania.
The Guardian - Land clearing: two million hectares of Queensland forest destroyed in five years, new analysis shows
6 March 2024 - New analysis shows more than 2m hectares of bushland in Queensland that included large swathes of possible koala habitat has been cleared over a five-year period.
Wilderness Society Queensland campaign manager, Hannah Schuch, said deforestation in Queensland was driving biodiversity loss.
“It’s having an impact on iconic native species like the koala, the greater glider, the red goshawk, it’s tearing down their homes and pushing them towards extinction."
AAP - Conservationists round on premier over logging bid
29 February 2024 - Wilderness Society campaigner Alice Hardinge says Tasmania's Liberal government's promising to expand native forest logging is not good enough, especially in the middle of an election campaign.
She says all 356,000ha have been independently assessed and found to have extremely high conservation values. Voters deserve to know which of the more than 250 parcels that make up the area will be targeted.
Carbon Pulse - Australian environmental groups call for land-clearing trigger in EPBC reforms
22 February 2024 - Proposed reforms to Australia’s national environment law still include loopholes that must be closed if the reforms are to actually protect nature from mass deforestation.
"The draft laws, as currently written, are simply not strong enough to protect nature from needless destruction. Science demands, and the community expects, nature laws that work— including by stopping deforestation. And delivering these laws is well within Labor’s grasp," said Sam Szoke-Burke, Biodiversity and Campaign Policy Manager for the Wilderness Society,
The Guardian - New Australian environment laws would not stop widespread deforestation, organisations say
22 February 2024 - The Wilderness Society, Environmental Justice Australia, and Environment Centre Northern Territory say that the draft national environment laws do not go far enough to stop large-scale deforestation for agriculture and mining developments, or explicitly reference the need to halt the decline in threatened species, which has accelerated.
Newcastle Weekly - NSW Government moves to end PEP-11 once and for all
"This legislation is a real opportunity to secure the gas-free coastline that NSW wants and deserves. After years of overwhelming opposition to PEP-11, we are hopeful that parliament will support the bill and we can finally say goodbye to the threat of fossil fuels off the NSW coast," Wilderness Society NSW Campaigns Manager Victoria Jack said.
Australian Financial Review - Teals back Plibersek, urge Vic to find alternative to Port of Hastings
10 January 2024 - Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has blocked a proposal to build a wind turbine assembly plant at the Port of Hastings in Victoria due to unacceptable environmental impacts on the Western Port Ramsar wetland. The Wilderness Society welcomes this decision from Minister Plibersek, who said in her rejection that the plant would cause “irreversible damage to the habitat of waterbirds and migratory birds and marine invertebrates and fish”.
The Land - Qlds's Channel Country a no-go for future gas exploration
22 December 2023 - Ending the year with a significant victory, the Queensland government announced that the Lake Eyre Basin will be protected from future oil and gas exploration following eight years of commitments from the Labor government. Hannah Schuch, Wilderness Society Queensland Campaigns Manager said the Premier "should be proud of the milestone, given he was Environment Minister in 2015 when the initial commitment was made."
Carbon Pulse - Opinion: Westpac says no to deforestation – others will soon have to
Canberra Times - Opinion: Bad oil and gas tenants leaving us to pay clean-up costs
"If gas and oil companies aren't made to pay right now, it's you and I (and our children) who will," said Wilderness Society Fossil Fuel Industry Campaigner, Fern Cadman.
AAP - Environment reforms to lift 'handbrake on investment'
"Removing appeal rights offered to the public under the Environment Protection Act is a serious concern for access to justice for communities, and for nature," campaign manager Tim Clifford said.
Carbon Pulse - Amended Nature Repair Market legislation welcomed, but overarching concerns remain, groups say
National Campaigns Director for the Wilderness Society, Amelia Young, said "Properly enforcing the current EPBC Act is the action we expect the Government to be taking right now, while also reforming Australia’s nature laws."
AAP - Protesters take stand against fracking in outback
Wilderness Society QLD Campaign Manager, Hannah Schuch, said communities did not want to see natural and ecologically significant systems unnecessarily tarnished by exploration and fracking. “We want to see these protections enacted now, we can’t wait any longer."
The Guardian - Conservation groups challenge Labor over ‘lack of urgency’ on environment laws
Newcastle Herald - Environment groups blast government's use of 'hypotheticals' in gas ban debate
"We are disappointed by the findings of the committee. Coastal communities have been campaigning together for years to protect the NSW coastline from the PEP11 project, which would have significant impacts on our climate and marine life if it proceeds, and these communities deserve a gas-free coastline," Wilderness Society NSW Campaigns Manager Victoria Jack said.
The Australian - Sacred lands at risk in government drive for development
Permits are reviewed by the Pastoral Land Board, but as Jenita Enevoldsen, Senior Campaigner for the Wilderness Society says, “There is a distinct lack of First Nations representation and environmental-science expertise on the Pastoral Land Board, which is concerning as they hold the power to decide on the approval of clearing permits across thousands of hectares of intact cultural landscapes.”
Yahoo - Domino's deletes trace of controversial word from pizza website
"Companies like Domino's have a responsibility to ensure they are not contributing to deforestation, and to be transparent about their supply chains," said Victorian Campaign Manager for the Wilderness Society, Matt Landolfo.
Carbon Pulse - Australian NGOs call for whole-of-government funding for biodiversity conservation
The Guardian - Delayed environment laws spark calls for urgent government action on water and fracking
Sam Szoke-Burke, Biodiversity Policy and Campaign Manager for the Wilderness Society said “No public consultations means that vested interests will be able to do their bidding behind closed doors with no oversight.”
ABC - Coalition of environmentalists calls on Premier Jacinta Allan to abolish VicForests
Wilderness Society Victoria Campaign Manager Matt Landolfo said it's time to "rebuild public trust, generate employment in the regions and work in partnership with traditional owners who have cared for country for millennia."
The Herald Sun - New recovery plan for critically endangered swift parrot a ‘death warrant’ for species: Conservationists
FS Sustainability - Finance "misunderstanding" risk of nature loss
The Guardian - Environmentalists condemn Australia’s ‘woeful record’ after 48 plants and animals added to threatened species list
“This many species being added to the list in one go is a sign of widespread ecological collapse,” said Tim Beshara, Manager of Policy and Strategy for the Wilderness Society.
Vice - Forestry Tasmania Says It Doesn't Log Giant Trees': Protest Over Felled Centuries-Old Tree
Alice Hardinge, Campaigner for the Wilderness Society Tasmania, said “Forestry Tasmania says that it doesn't log giant trees. Yet every other week, Tasmanians see giant single-log loads on the back of trucks, and concerned citizens find giant stumps in public state forests.”
WA Today - Six months investigating Alcoa: Water supply at risk, toxic pipeline and a glimmer of transparency
ABC - Land clearing figures show 50pc reduction in three years in Queensland, but conservationists warn it is not enough
Hannah Schuch, Queensland Campaign Manager for the Wilderness Society said category X should also be covered by the legislation and that it is it is key habitat for koalas.
The Canberra Times - Opinion: Australia is experiencing a biodiversity crisis
Instead of trade-offs and market solutions, the Albanese government must focus on doing the work to protect nature and enabling the community and First Nations peoples to have a fair say in decisions that affect them, says the Wilderness Society's Biodiversity Policy & Campaign Manager Sam Szoke-Burke.
Mamamia - 9 of the best books to connect kids to Country this NAIDOC week.
AAP - Greenwash claim as miner pledges to stay away from town
Campaign manager for Wilderness Society WA, Tim Clifford, said "Repackaging inaction as environmental conservation is simply not enough."
Katherine Times - Opinion: NT land clearing shows why we need new national nature laws
Wilderness Society senior campaigner Jenita Enevoldsen explores why new national environment laws are so critical for NT's tropical savanna.
Sydney Morning Herald - Minister told that beef producers aren’t a deforestation risk
Wilderness Society federal policy director Tim Beshara said “The only way to fix it is to fix it. That is to turn around the decline in nature. Not to try it on with definitional games and spin.”
The Examiner - Decision looms in battle over Tasmania's wild heart
ABC - Tasmanian timber industry wants greater access to native forests. Conservationists are resisting that push
The industry in Tasmania is basically asking the taxpayer to fund it transitioning backwards and we can't afford to go backwards."
The Guardian - End of native logging in Victoria ‘a monumental win for forests’, say conservationists
National Campaigns Director for the Wilderness Society, Amelia Young, says “living, breathing, intact forests” are our best safeguard against the climate crisis.