Australia is in the midst of an extinction crisis.
As the Australian State of the Environment Report 2021 starkly outlined, our biodiversity is in rapid decline. Unless governments quickly commit to ambitious legislative reform, along with increased funding and efforts to abate the key threats bearing down on our biodiversity, we will continue along the trajectory of extinctions.
This committee has held a number of recent inquiries which considered the dire need for legislative and systemic reform to turn around the current extinction trajectory. The committee is therefore well aware of the key pressures driving the poor state of Australia’s environment, including the increasing pressures of invasive species which were the primary cause of all except one of the seven animal extinctions since 2000 and are currently the highest impact threat to threatened species.
We have made 9 recommendations for consideration by the Committee regarding the proposed Nature Positive Bills to improve:
- Assurance and oversight of conservation planning
- The definition of Nature Positive
- The independence of Environment Protection Australia
- The functions of Environment Information Australia
Summary of Recommendations
Recommendation 1: Include amendments which give the EPA a direct oversight and assurance role in reporting to parliament on the implementation of conservation planning instruments, including threat abatement plans, recovery plans and proposed recovery strategies.
Recommendation 2: Amend the definition for ‘Nature Positive’ under Section 6 of the EIA Bill to include the words ‘measured against a 2020 baseline’, to meet the international standard set in the Global Biodiversity Framework, of which Australia is a signatory.
Recommendation 3: Amend Section 6 – Definition of Nature Positive, subsection (2) of the EIA Bill to specify that ‘species’ are ‘locally native species’ or ‘indigenous species’ to make clear that invasive species don’t count as increased diversity.
Recommendation 4: Amend Section 6 – Definition of Nature Positive, subsection (2) to include a reference to improvements in the abatement of threats.
Recommendations 5: Require a governing board of suitably qualified, independent people to appoint and oversee a skills-based EPA CEO, and play a role in setting the strategy of the EPA.
Recommendation 6: Amend Under Section 3 – Objects, subsection (c) to include ‘government funded programs’ (e.g. grants and procurement through third parties) in addition to government policies and programs.
Recommendation 7: Amend the functions conferred on the Head of the EIA (Section 11) to include:
a) identify categories of environmental information held by governments that should be published in the public interest
b) develop standards for the reporting of environmental information, including by the recipients of public funding for environmental projects
c) identify priority gaps in environment data and information
d) facilitate the timely addition to and correction of information and data used by the government
Recommendation 8: Under Section 16 – National Environment information assets, subsection (1) amend the word ‘critical’ to ‘important’.
Recommendation 9: The Government should commit to pass the remaining stages of promised EPBC Act reforms before the end of the parliamentary term, and communicate its plan for delivery. This should include conservation planning reform, encompassing threat abatement and recovery planning instruments.
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