Labor’s environmental reforms fail to close 25-year-old Great Barrier Reef loophole: Ken Henry
The Great Barrier Reef will remain vulnerable to “irresponsible clearing” and put one of Australia’s biggest “employers” at risk under Labor’s planned environmental reforms, a leading economist has warned.
Ken Henry, former Treasury minister and president of the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation, said neither existing laws nor the Albanian government’s proposed reforms could close a 25-year gap.
Dr. Henry said between 2019/20 and 2022/23, 500,000 hectares of forest and woodland had been cleared in catchments, releasing sediment, chemicals and fertilizers that stressed and damaged the fragile reef ecosystem.
Dr. “The need for national legislation to address this problem is clear on environmental grounds alone,” Henry told the Australian Economic Development Committee in Brisbane on Wednesday.
“And this is further reinforced by the fact that the reef is a major source of economic activity.”
A report published last month by Deloitte Access Economics, commissioned by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, revealed that the reef contributes $9 billion annually to the Australian economy and approximately 77,000 people.
“If the reef were an employer, it would be Australia’s fifth largest reef,” Dr Henry is expected to say.
“But neither existing laws nor proposed reforms give the Australian government the ability to take action to protect reefs from irresponsible clearing due to a 25-year gap.”
Dr Henry said real collaboration was needed between the federal and Queensland governments to close the gaps, but the state government “didn’t have to wait to be dictated to by the Commonwealth”.
In July, the World Heritage Committee called on the Queensland government to immediately strengthen protections for remaining, high-value vegetation, including Category X areas where clearing is exempt from state approval.
“Queenslanders are custodians of some extraordinary natural and cultural heritage assets of global importance,” Dr Henry will say.
“These are treasures whose protection and, where appropriate, restoration is a shared responsibility between the Queensland and Australian governments.”
The reforms are “vital and long overdue” and are expected to be passed by the end of the year, a federal government spokesman said in a statement.
“Our reforms will deliver strong new national environmental standards and make clear what is an unacceptable impact, particularly on the Great Barrier Reef as one of the protected Matters of National Environmental Concern,” the spokesman said.
“As well as higher penalties for the most serious breaches of environmental law, environmental protection orders will also be imposed to be used in emergency situations to prevent and respond to major breaches of the law.”
The Albanian government is investing a record $1.2 billion over nine years to 2030 to accelerate actions to protect and restore the reefs, the spokesman said.
“This includes $1.8 billion to improve water quality from 2014 to 2030, including new programs to increase efforts to reduce sediment runoff in reef catchments, better manage runoff from farmland and urban areas, as well as rehabilitate vital habitats important to water quality,” the spokesperson said.
Environmental law ‘badly failed’
The speech comes as negotiations continue between Labor, the Coalition and the Greens over reforms proposed by the Albanian government.
Under the proposal, Environment Minister Murray Watt would be given the power to issue National Environmental Standards and clearly define “unacceptable impacts”, alongside reforms to the national interest exemption.
The bill also seeks to address long-standing calls for a National Environmental Protection Agency.
Dr Henry said the current law had “failed badly”.
“This is not a radical view,” he said.
“The last three Australian parliaments have tried to reform these laws.
“The last two attempts ended in failure and acrimony. Neither the environment nor the economy can afford a third failure. Three strikes and we are out.”
The former Treasury secretary said that, with more reform to come, Labor’s reform proposals, which passed the lower house last week, offer “hope of a better approach”.
In particular, the bill confirms the role of the government in protecting national interests and Dr. It provides greater certainty in enforcing laws, which Henry said were previously implemented on a project-by-project basis.
Dr Henry warned the reforms would also impact the federal government’s net zero target.
“To put it bluntly, Australia has no chance of meeting its stated net-zero targets for renewable energy, critical minerals development, housing and transport
Infrastructure without very high quality national laws setting clear environmental standards for major projects and without a strong national regulator respected by all parties
and without significant improvement not only in the Commonwealth’s environmental protection systems, but also in the environmental protection systems of the states and territories,” he said.
