Australia is one of the most beautiful, biodiverse places on Earth. However, many parts of it are stressed, most obviously the Great Barrier Reef and the Murray-Darling Basin. How can we manage our environmental assets as a national priority, transparently and beyond the electoral cycle?
Australia’s magnificent natural environment supports us allAustralia’s environment is globally significant, with 19 World Heritage sites and 8% of the world’s flora and fauna species, many found nowhere else.
These rich natural assets underpin our health, wealth and wellbeing, giving us:
- food, water, oxygen and energy
- diverse employment and business opportunities, spanning tourism, medicines, sustainable farming and energy
- our Indigenous cultural heritage and identity, and
- a vast array of recreational activities.
But our natural environment faces real and immediate threats
- Loss of more biodiversity than any other continent, with 1700 threatened species
- We are the developed world’s only deforestation hotspot
- Half the Great Barrier Reef’s coral has died since 2016
- We have lost 90% of Murray-Darling wetlands and 75% of on the Swan Coastal wetlands in WA
- Other countries have stopped accepting our recycling
- Plastic is devastating our marine environments, and
- Invasive species and pollution threaten our local environments, including Warringah’s endangered species such as the little penguin
So we need clear, cooperative action to preserve and protect our natural environment.Working with business, local government and environmental groups, to support funding, tax and R&D incentives to:
- Sustainably use our natural resources
- Protect and manage our national and marine parks
- Reduce pollution through innovation
- Protect and enhance our local Warringah environment, and
- Ensure our planning and environmental laws are coherent, effective and properly enforced.