Australians love this country for its immense natural wealth: bush, rivers, reefs and wildlife. It's who we are and how we thrive. But our nature is shrinking fast.
Every two minutes, a football field's worth of nature is destroyed and since our current laws came into force, an area of native bushland larger than the size of Tasmania has been bulldozed.
Destroying nature destroys what matters most to Australia: our natural wealth, our prosperity, our way of life.
If we want a strong Australia, we need strong nature laws.
After years of undelivered promises, the Albanese Government will finally introduce its revamped national nature protection laws to parliament by November this year. But will they actually protect Australia's nature and all of us who depend on it?
To be successful, the government must:
Close deforestation loopholes
Set clear, strong rules for nature protection
Establish an independent Environment Protection Agency to provide accountable and expertise-based decision making
Address climate harm in all decisions
Let's unpack the four things Albanese's nature laws must do and what's at stake:
Close deforestation loopholes
Case study 1: Koalas are being driven to extinction by rogue bulldozers and lax laws.
The koala is our beloved national icon, and it's in big trouble.
Since 2011, the koala has been recognised as threatened with extinction, and the federal government notes the destruction of its native forest and woodland homes as a "severe" and "increasing" threat to its existence.
Despite this, 2.3 million hectares of likely koala habitat in Queensland and New South Wales has been destroyed in that time. That's more than 2.5 times the size of Greater Melbourne.
Of this, more than 98% was destroyed 'outside' of the national nature law. That is, without even being assessed for its impact by the very law meant to protect nature.
This is largely because our nature laws are barely enforced and peppered with loopholes that let the bulldozers loose without consequences.
More than 390,000 hectares of koala habitat have been cut down by the native forest logging industry to make products like woodchips and pallets. Unbelievably, this industry is exempt from Australia's nature protection law.
Of the koala habitat flattened since 2011, around 1.6 million hectares were bulldozed to make way for agriculture, particularly in Queensland. That's an area 22 times the size of Singapore gone.
While most farmers and landholders value and protect trees on their properties, a small number exploit loopholes in our nature laws and continue to bulldoze vast areas of the bush without consequence. These loopholes must be closed.
