The Australian Conservation Foundation has urged the Albanese government to work with crossbenchers to pass stalled nature protection laws when Parliament sits in February.
A draft Senate program shows the bills listed for debate next Thursday.
Late last year business and mining lobby groups managed to stall the passage of legislation to create a national environment protection agency (EPA), but the necessary bills could still pass with the support of the crossbench.
“So far the Albanese government has nothing to show for its 2022 election commitment to establish a new national EPA and fix our broken nature laws,” said ACF’s national biodiversity policy adviser Brendan Sydes.
“Passing the bills before the Senate would be an important step towards fixing these laws and would give a clear indication Prime Minister Albanese and his government remain committed to nature law reform.
“The Prime Minister says he’ll only do things that align with Labor values – surely that includes delivering on his 2022 election commitment to establish an independent EPA and set new environmental standards.
“Taking directions from multinational mining companies that are trying to derail the entry of an independent environmental agency does not align with Labor values or Australian values.
“The campaign run by the resources industry and peak business groups last year revealed how scared these sectors are about genuinely independent administration of national nature laws.
“The laws that are supposed to protect nature are failing. Threatened species habitat is still being destroyed at an alarming rate.
“Without the full reform of Australia’s unfit-for-purpose nature law and an independent agency to enforce the law, more and more unique plants and animals face extinction.
“We urge the Albanese government to work with crossbenchers to pass the stalled legislation because more delay means more extinctions.”
Analysis released last week by ACF showed the Albanese government, which committed to ‘no new extinctions’ in 2022, approved the destruction of twice as much threatened species habitat in 2024 as it did the previous year.
ACF’s Extinction wrapped analysis found the Albanese government approved the destruction of more than 25,000 hectares of threatened species habitat in 2024, including 3,003 hectares of koala habitat.