How governments are greenlighting nature’s decline

New environmental offset rules, weak enforcement and bureaucratic complexity are accelerating habitat loss while governments claim to protect Australia’s wildlife, writes Sue Arnold.

AUSTRALIA is at an environmental crossroads. The Albanian Government is on track to adopt a new draft environmental offset standard and draft regulations that will determine the fate of Australian wildlife.

The changes are significant, confusing, time-consuming and seriously undermine existing environmental protections in ways that cannot be described as effective. The government wages war against all forms of opposition, using long, complex documents, draft strategies, charts, online workshops, questionable research, and providing limited responses.

In fact, the Federal Government’s talk is shaping up as a national alternative to sleeping pills. This is the perfect response to the forces that are currently driving this country.

An important tactic is to limit any dissent with a tsunami of principles, themes, conclusions, offsets, recommendations, guidelines, and the creation of endless committees; All of which potentially amounts to the most serious destruction of Australia’s environment by any government in the last 50 years.

Consider biodiversity offsets. To date, no one in government has been able to explain how paying megadollars to offset the environmental damage a project will cause will have a positive impact elsewhere.

When a habitat is destroyed, it is destroyed. Describing Environmental Justice As a “pay to destroy” scheme. How do you fix something else by destroying what already exists?

Environmental Advocacy in Central Queensland (EnvA) directed by Dr. Coral Rowston explains standard like ‘Permission to destroy nature’:

EnvA is particularly concerned about provisions that would allow supporters to make payments into offset funds when appropriate offsets cannot be achieved.

“The damage and destruction of nationally important environmental values should not be for sale,” Dr Rowston said.

“Offsets are often presented as a solution, but in reality, they often fail to replace habitat, ecological connectivity, and ecosystem functions that are permanently lost as development progresses.”

“Australia’s biodiversity continues to decline despite more than a decade of offsetting policies across the country,” Dr Rowston said.

According to EnvA, Queensland provides worrying evidence of the failure of biodiversity offsets.

“Ninety percent of offset obligations were satisfied through financial payments. Developers overwhelmingly prefer to write checks. This is not a hedge, it is a financial transaction.” said Dr Rowston.

The Queensland Government has more than $129 million. offset accountThose that are not spent while the habitat continues to be cleared.

The alarming use of offsets by governments, one-stop shop For environmental approvals. driven by Abbott Coalition Government In 2013, both Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Minister of Environment Greg Hunt enthusiastically embraced the new evaluation process.

Under the changes, states assume the Commonwealth’s environmental assessment powers, including the assessment of applications under state and federal legislation through bilateral agreements.

Any legal challenge to projects approved by bilateral agreement is an expensive undertaking.

Under the new draft standard, decision-makers are not specifically required to take climate change emissions into account when approving projects.

One of the best examples of the Albanian environmental circus is the Community Advisory Committee (CAC), established in 2023. National Recovery Plan for Koala 2022.

A national rescue team representing the diversity of those interested in the conservation of listed koalas will form the core of recovery efforts. It will monitor the progress of implementation, share and review information, and identify funding opportunities. The rescue team will be supported by the Expert Technical Advisory Committee, the Community Advisory Committee, as well as the Commonwealth and state and territory governments.

A CAC to represent a wide range of groups interested in the conservation, welfare and rehabilitation of koalas and industry groups interested in disseminating and sharing knowledge.

Under Strategy 2, CAC helps: ‘strong management’ and the role includes:

‘Develop active communication, education and extension or outreach strategies for businesses (developers, industries and rural landowners’ businesses) aimed at koala habitat conservation…’

2023 Implementation Path, Theme 2Briefly talks about CAC:

‘Establish rescue team sub-groups of expert advisors to provide guidance to the National Koala Rescue Team; This includes a Community Advisory Committee to ensure inclusivity and community participation in recovery efforts.’

In late 2022, the Federal Government called for an expression of interest (EOI) for the CAC. The number of responses was over 78, comprising local government, industry, NGOs and care groups; This was a recipe for conflicts of interest.

Only three meetings have been held since appointments to the CAC were made in March 2023. There are no details available on the Federal Government website naming the organizations involved in the CAC.

Annual Report 2025 between National Koala Recovery Plan It gives details of the following member organisations:

Community Advisory Committee membership was selected from the following categories (77 total organizations):

land care

wildlife hospitals

Koala advocacy organizations

research organizations

local councils

Environmental professionals and consultants

Farming representative groups

wildlife care

Zoos

No minutes, no agenda. Communication was sparse and had limited relevance to the implementation of the recovery plan; revolving door of coordinators,

Dr Rowston sends formal letter to Environment Minister on behalf of CAC members Murray Watt Noting that no official meeting has been held since November 2024 at the beginning of June:

‘Information provided to the CAC on the implementation of the recovery plan was limited to high-level summaries, vague descriptions of ‘some progress’ or ‘limited progress’, with no detail of actions undertaken or results achieved.’

Forestry, major urbanization, fossil fuel projects and infrastructure are not mentioned in the 2025 annual report. Almost all goals were scored ‘some progress’.

Rescue team membership consists of state and federal governments and a single NGO. WWF Australia.

Koalas are an umbrella species for coastal forest ecosystems. It is scandalous that the national recovery plan and its annexes do not address catastrophic habitat loss with urgent recommendations to protect remaining habitat.

Environmental Justice Victoria (E.J.) raised another alarm for koalas. Although Regional Forest Agreements EJ believes environmental exemptions (which deny protection to listed endangered species) are over ‘Logging companies are pushing the government to replace the exemption with new loopholes that allow native forest logging to continue; This essentially becomes RFA exemption 2.0.’.

Bruce LindsaySenior specialist lawyer at EJ, summarizes Future path outlined by the Federal Government ‘smoke and mirrors’.

Last week’s Budget provides some insight into how the Federal Government plans to regulate the logging of native forests, setting aside millions of public funds to “advance a landscape-scale approval pathway for jurisdictions with RFAs”. This signals that the government plans for local forest logging to continue.

…it must be explained that logging of native forests is an activity that has proven for decades to be an ecological disgrace, a legal train wreck, and an economic blight—an industry that costs taxpayers huge amounts, produces large-scale environmental destruction, and often fails to proceed legally despite very positive political protection.

The icing on the deadly environmental cake baked by the federal and state governments will be revealed at 7 p.m. Four CornersOn Monday, June 22nd, EJ will release their album. new report: Following the Money: The incomplete transition from native forest logging..

The report examines where claims of $1.5 billion in public spending linked to Victoria’s shift away from native forest logging are actually going and asks: Has the transition delivered what the public was promised?

Why, after a massive influx of cash, are Victorian mills still overflowing with timber from native forests, and why are Victorian forests still lacking permanent legal protection?

What is clear from the mountain of evidence is a grim, frightening future for Australia’s environment and iconic wildlife. Many environmental scientists and conservation organizations are ringing alarm bells loudly, with zero political backlash.

There has never been a more urgent need for a political party focused full-time on the catastrophic short- and long-term environmentally destructive plans that governments are trying to implement, depriving this ancient continent’s environment and Australia’s economy of a healthy future.

Political parties and governments are ignoring growing national protests against their extinction-focused policies at their peril.

Something smells bad in Canberra.