In the current 2025 election energy and climate policy have been prominent but what about our natural environment? It is a major issue amongst voters and yet there has been nothing said about the plans for the future and action to implement policies that were promised at the previous election by the Labor government.
As reported in The Guardian late last year the not-for-profit Biodiversity Council (see below) commissioned a survey of 3,500 Australians to gauge what they thought about the environment. 96% of people said more action was needed to look after Australia’s natural environment. Nearly two-thirds were between moderately and extremely concerned about the loss of plants and animals around where they live. Three-quarters of respondents said they would back stronger national nature laws, including the introduction of clear environment standards against which development proposals could be measured and potentially rejected.
The Biodiversity Council is an expert group founded by 11 Australian universities to promote evidence-based solutions to our biodiversity crisis. Their work is funded through the generous contributions of donors including individual community members. Their work is also enabled by our expert councillors who donate their time to council activities to improve outcomes for nature in Australia.
The Labor government was working on legislation promised in the 2022 election that would have been the first part of the so-called ‘nature positive’ plan. It would have established two new agencies: an environmental protection agency to manage compliance with national environmental laws and an information agency to manage environmental data.
Agreement from the Greens and crossbench was needed in the Senate. They negotiated for amendments to be made for integration of climate considerations into the environmental assessment process and closing the effective exemption for native forest logging covered by a regional forest agreement from national environmental laws. Environment groups have been testing these issues in the courts unsuccessfully for years.
It was all set to be passed when Prime Minister Albanese intervened in response to an industry backlash from the WA miners and the whole deal has been shelved.
During the election Albanese has again promised to pass the laws but it would be a different model of EPA to what had been promised this term, but he has given no details.
Salmon farming
In another blow to the environment, just last month the prime minister rushed through a law to protect Tasmanian salmon farming from an environmental review into whether an expansion of fish farming in Macquarie harbour in 2012 was properly approved. This review would force a pause in the industry operations.
Salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour not only threatens the survival of the world’s rarest and critically endangered Maugean skate, it also threatens the overall health of the harbour with low oxygen levels and algal blooms. The industrial scale of the salmon farming is killing the farmed fish as well as the rest of the ecology of the harbour.
The drafting of the bill has been criticised because it appears to not be industry or geographically specific, prompting concerns the changes could have much wider ramifications and be applied to other decisions, including on mining, land clearing or housing and infrastructure development. The existing legislation has been weakened in a way that could yet have broader ramifications.
Funding for biodiversity programs is paltry
The full list of threatened Australian animals, plants and ecological communities now has more than 2,200 entries. It includes some of the country’s most loved native species, including the koala and Carnaby’s black cockatoo.
The government isn’t even acting on the current weak legislation requirements. In March the Wilderness Society launched a case in the Federal Court against the environment minister arguing she and previous environment ministers have acted unlawfully by failing to meet their legal obligations to create threatened species recovery plans. Eleven endangered species such as the greater glider are being identified in this test case.
While funding for nature has increased since Labor was elected in 2022, the reality is that in last month’s budget, on-ground biodiversity programs received just 0.06% of spending. It is not enough to make a difference in turning around the trend of more species becoming threatened.
Short term economics still dominates decision making
Despite statements about aiming to improve biodiversity there are still many instances where short term priorities such as local jobs override the need for longer term restructuring, eg native forest logging and coal mining.
The Liberal Party is even worse. They have announced faster decisions such as swift approval of the Woodside North West Shelf gas project that will damage iconic ancient aboriginal petroglyphs and jeopardise any hope of achieving net zero emission goals. They also want to fast-track approvals of new gas projects even though experts state that we have enough gas.