Executive Summary

This report calls for Australia to recommit to protection of the environment. Australia needs to reinvigorate its political commitment to protecting our natural heritage by creating powerful instruments that are fit for purpose in addressing the serious challenges presented this century.

Environmental degradation is accelerating in Australia. We have one of the highest rates of extinctions in the world; globally significant rates of deforestation; plastics clogging our waterways and in many regions diminishing air, water and soil quality threaten human wellbeing and productivity.

Environmental policy innovation in the past 20 years has failed to keep pace with environmental challenges. Climate change and population growth are putting unprecedented pressure on our environment. With the threats facing this country so much bigger than the site-by-site battles that first animated environmental concern, the need for better systems based approaches is now critical.

The current federal environment regime and its key legal instrument, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) 1999, are not fit for purpose in the 21st century. A new approach must be delivered where the federal government takes a strategic leadership role, setting legally binding standards to be applied by other governments and industry, and backed by a reanimated commitmentto protecting Australia’s natural assets.