Legal loopholes threaten reef, ex-Treasury boss warns
The Great Barrier Reef is at risk unless natural law reforms close long-standing deforestation gaps, a prominent economist and environmentalist warns.
Former Treasury Secretary Ken Henry said there is a “strong case” for overhauling federal environmental protections to eliminate flaws that allow for widespread clearing of native vegetation.
“Neither current 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,” the head of the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation will tell an audience in Brisbane.
Dr Henry is also skeptical of overriding “national interests”, but otherwise favors a reform drive and says change is urgently needed to protect nature and unleash economic productivity.
“Neither the environment nor the economy can afford a third failure,” he told an Australian Economic Development Committee event on Wednesday.
Australia’s federal government is making its third attempt to overhaul laws designed to protect nationally important species and habitats from destructive development.
The latest initiative, spearheaded by Labor Environment Minister Murray Watt, has yet to gain the necessary support from the Greens or the opposition.
Dr Henry says the proposed reforms offer “significant improvements” but are undermined by the persistence of gaps in deforestation and some other shortcomings.
“The failure of reforms to deal with the large-scale clearing of native vegetation is a huge problem,” he will say.
Queensland one hotspot for deforestation and land clearing in catchments draining into the World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef causes erosion that washes debris into waterways.
Sediment, nutrients and pesticides are then sent downstream into the ocean, where they stress corals already under pressure from warming oceans.
According to estimates from the Australian Marine Conservation Society, around 700,000 hectares of native bushland in reef catchments have been cleared between 2018 and 2022.
The drive to protect the reef is further strengthened by its role as an economic engine, says Dr Henry, citing Deloitte Access Economics research commissioned by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.
“If the reef were an employer, it would be the fifth largest reef in Australia,” he will say.
Closing well-known gaps in forestry and land clearing also has implications for climate change, as trees and vegetation are important carbon sinks.
Protecting forests is now a priority issue at United Nations climate talks being held alongside the Amazon rainforest, known as the “lungs of the earth.”
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