Australia’s main environment laws have long been regarded as not fit for purpose. But efforts to strengthen environmental protection have met huge pushback.
Now that all Senate seats apart from Western Australia have been finalised, it’s clear the Greens have had a mixed result. But the worst of the bad news for the party is likely yet to come, when Tasmania…
You’ve heard of cap-and-trade schemes for greenhouse gases. Perhaps we also need one to limit the amount of fertiliser runoff onto the Great Barrier Reef.
In 1999, Robert Hill’s Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Act (EPBC Act) was enacted. One of its hard-fought provisions was that threatened species (and ecological communities) had to be considered…
The government is set to restrict green groups’ right to challenge environmental approvals in court. But the law isn’t doing its job in protecting Australia’s plants and animals anyway.
Turn Down the Heat - a new report from the World Bank - stresses “no nation will be immune to the impact of climate change” and argues compellingly the necessity to hold warming below 2 degrees. It paints…
This week Greens Senator Larissa Waters proposed significant amendments to the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Some sought to better protect farmers and water resources from…
Kevin Rudd cast the Council of Australian governments as the workhorse of the federation. For Tony Abbott it is more of a hacking pony, good to have but with relatively light duties. Abbott’s first COAG…
Hopes for environmental law reform during the current term of federal government have been dashed, so what lies ahead for ‘nature positive’ next term?
Murray Watt came to the role of environment minister with a reputation as a fixer. The question now is, what will he trade to get WA miners on side?
