These success stories are rare. More often, the environment has to settle for rhetoric, best wishes and pockets of funding too small to make a real difference. It is too early to say whether this will prove the case with the Albanese government, but there are some concerning signs.
The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, started in the portfolio by setting high benchmarks against which her performance will be measured. At the National Press Club last July, she was, which slashed funding for environment programs and failed to fix conservation laws. She promised real change, declaring that “under Labor the environment is back on the priority list”.
Ten months on, we are yet to see evidence of this change. There are some excuses. Plibersek landed in the portfolio unexpectedly and developing policy takes time. But responding to the crisis requires whole-of-government backing. Labor spent next to no time on environment policy in the last parliament and held back its few commitmentsPrime minister Anthony Albanese and environment minister Tanya Plibersek during a visit to Wild Life Sydney Zoo in April.
, focused on only 110 of about 1,900 threatened species. Legislation has been introduced to create a “nature repair market”, which the government says will encourage businesses to pay to protect the environment. In return, they would receive certificates to basically say they are good corporate citizens. It is an expansion of a pilot proposed by the Coalition shortly before it lost power.