Church representatives have backed calls for stronger environmental protection laws and standards in Australia following the release of a report which raises concerns about the “unsustainable” environmental trajectory, The Catholic Leader reports.
Professor Graeme Samuel, recently released an interim report for his review of Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, saying the act was “ineffective” and “is not fit to address current or future environmental challenges”.
The Great Barrier Reef is one of Australia’s ecological areas under growing threat. (PHOTO: United Nations)
“Australia’s natural environment and iconic places are in an overall state of decline and are under increasing threat,” he said in the interim report.
“The current environmental trajectory is unsustainable.
“Fundamental reform of national environmental law is required, and new, legally enforceable National Environmental Standards should be the foundation.”
Prof Samuel said a “strong, independent cop on the beat is required”.
“An independent compliance and enforcement regulator, that is not subject to actual or implied political direction from the Commonwealth (Environment) Minister, should be established,” he said.
Co-founder of the Global Catholic Climate Movement Jacqui Remond backed those recommendations.
“Environmental law is in need of great reform and we need an effective and ambitious Act to work within Australia,” she said.
“There’s a need for clear environmental standards, there’s a need for an independent regulator, or an environmental watchdog, to enforce everyone to comply to those – businesses, governments, decision-makers and everyone …”
Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley has rejected the call for an independent watchdog.
However, pre-empting the review’s final report, she said she would introduce draft laws to Parliament this month (August) to change the EPBC Act.
Her new laws would allow bilateral agreements with states and territories to devolve approval powers, and include national environmental standards proposed in the interim report.
Ms Remond was not in favour of rushing decisions or devolving approval decisions to the states.
“Firstly, this is an interim report … so it presents us with a great opportunity for reform and I think that needs to be celebrated and taken forward in a very thorough way and not raced into but to go slow and steady with it,” she said.
She said more detail was needed around the proposed national standards.
Ms Remond said she had concerns about the recommendation on the decision-making authority.
“I’m very, very cautious about devolving decision-making to the state level because in many cases this could seriously, on a regular basis, result in even greater destruction,” she said.
Ms Remond said Australia needed “a great set of laws that would stop extinctions from happening and to look after God’s Creation here”.
Prof Samuel said in his report the operation of the Act in relation to Indigenous Australians reflected “a culture of tokenism”.
“A specific standard for best-practice Indigenous engagement is needed to ensure that Indigenous Australians that speak for, and have traditional knowledge of, Country have had the proper opportunity to contribute to decision-making,” he said.
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council chair John Lochowiak said the council welcomed the interim report.
“The Samuel report recognises the desperate need for better measures to protect the environment and heritage in Australia,” he said.
“It draws attention to the vital importance of perspectives from First Nations Australians in ramping up protections in both these areas of environment and heritage.
“NATSICC sees a need to implement all of the report’s interim recommendations, importantly including those directed to stronger Indigenous engagement.”
In a general comment, Catholic Earthcare Australia director Bernard Holland said we failed to see that business and economy was “the result of the natural environment at the end of the day, and vice versa”.
“It’s only when we realise we can’t derive an income from what is left from the natural environment that we understand (that), and then we move to a new place and exploit that one,” he said.
“But eventually it runs out and the trail of destruction behind is devastating, as we see – bushfires and floods and droughts …”
Prof Samuel’s final report is due to be completed by the end of October, 2020.
This article is an abridged version of an article which was published in The Catholic Leader. Read the full article here.