Australia’s failing environmental laws could be replaced next year, new minister Tanya Plibersek has said, while launching a scathing attack on the management of the country’s most precious species and places.
Launching the latest five-yearly state of the environment report, Plibersek laid out the need for sweeping environmental reform and said new legislation would go before parliament next year.
She also confirmed the Albanese government would press ahead with a pre-election commitment to protect 30% of Australia’s land by 2030, in line with global proposals being put to a UN biodiversity conference later this year.
The minister’s office told Guardian Australia that environmental law reforms would mean either amendments to the existing 1999 Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, or an entirely new law to replace it.
In a speech at the National Press Club, Plibersek said the government would also release a draft proposal for a new independent environment protection agency later this year.
She did not rule out calls for a “climate trigger” in new laws on fossil fuel project assessments, but pointed to a major review of laws last year that said climate impacts could be addressed in other ways.
Plibersek attacked previous Coalition governments on environmental management, saying she had inherited widespread lack of trust and integrity.
She said: “Years of warnings that were ignored or kept secret. Promises made, but not delivered. Dodgy behaviour, undermining public confidence. Brutal funding cuts. Wilful neglect.
“Laws that don’t work to protect the environment, or smooth the way for sensible development. All against the backdrop of accelerating environmental destruction.
“It’s time to change that.”
The state of the environment report, released on Tuesday, assessed Australia’s ecosystems, biodiversity and climate and their threats, as well as the effectiveness of environmental laws.
Australia’s environment was in poor health and was deteriorating. Since the 2016 assessment, more species were threatened with extinction, land clearing had continued at a massive scale and extreme weather events were unfolding with more frequency on land and in the ocean.
Rising greenhouse gas emissions, mostly from burning fossil fuels, were having wide-reaching impacts across ecosystems and human societies.
At least 19 ecosystems were now showing signs of collapse or near collapse.
Leading conservation groups said the report had painted a grim picture, showing a historical lack of leadership and environmental laws that were desperate for reform.
Plibersek flagged “new environmental legislation for 2023”, for which the government would “consult thoroughly”.
In the speech, Plibersek repeated a pre-election pledge to have 30% of Australia’s land area protected by 2030, adding to Australia’s existing commitment to protect 30% of the nation’s ocean estate, which the country had already met.
This would mean considering new national parks, she said, as well as pushing for a large marine park in east Antarctica that had failed to be adopted internationally despite a decade of backing from Australia.
In the coming months and years, Plibersek, a high-profile Labor figure who did not expect to be handed the environment portfolio, could have to make approval decisions on up to 27 coal projects, according to analysis.
A 10-yearly review of the EPBC Act, released in early 2021, found it was failing to protect species and the environment, and needed urgent reform.
Plibersek said the government would fully respond to that review, led by the former competition watchdog chair Graeme Samuel, before the end of the year.
The EPBC Act does not require a minister to consider the climate impacts of fossil fuel projects when deciding whether to give approval.
This stands next to the latest state of the environment report which said climate change had already had profound and “major impacts on human wellbeing and the environment”.
The Greens and some environment groups have said laws covering the assessment of fossil fuel projects need to include a “climate trigger” that would give the minister the option to block projects.
Plibersek said she had not yet consulted widely enough, but pointed to a 2021 review of environment laws from Graeme Samuel. That review, she said, had suggested there were other laws that could deal with environmental protection from climate change.
She said she would be guided by three essential goals to “protect, restore and manage” the country’s environment.
She said the Murray-Darling Basin plan’s promise to deliver 450 gigalitres of water back to the environment by 2024 would be “almost impossible” to meet, given just two gigalitres had been delivered so far.
Jonno Duniam, the shadow environment minister, accused Plibersek of “partisan finger-pointing and game-playing”, saying she had not allayed fears Labor would be “stampeded by the Greens into implementing prohibitively tough environmental laws, more lock-ups and industry shutdowns”.
“The minister had a real opportunity today to spell out detail on Labor’s election policy on a new environmental protection authority, its position on the use of coal, the phasing out of forestry, and many other crucial issues, but failed to do so,” Duniam said.
Conservationists responded to the report by calling for urgent steps to reform environment laws, increase funding and for the Albanese government to follow through on an election promise to establish an independent federal environmental protection agency.
Evan Quartermain, the head of programs for Humane Society International, said: “We look forward to the new Albanese government moving swiftly. The next state of the environment report cannot be more of the same.”
Kelly O’Shanassy, the chief executive of the Australian Conservation Foundation, said Australia needed an independent regulator to enforce strengthened environmental laws “and adequate funding for the recovery of Australia’s threatened species and the restoration of degraded landscapes”.
Rachel Lowry, the acting chief executive of WWF-Australia, said the heartbreaking findings confirmed the environment act was “failing miserably”.
“This government has the opportunity to turn things around before we lose another species, and the right place to start is to deliver a new generation of nature laws in its first year,” she said.
Darren Kindleysides, the chief executive of the Australian Marine Conservation Society, said the response to the “devastating report card” would be the Albanese government’s first test of its environmental credibility.
More funding was needed to help threatened marine wildlife recover, and areas of marine sanctuaries that allowed wildlife to thrive needed to be expanded, he said.
The Albanese government’s new target to cut emissions by 43% by 2030 did not go far enough with coral reefs already suffering even before global heating had reached 1.5C. “We cannot shy away from this reality any more,” he said.
