| Summary: | The last four years have seen substantial calls for amendments to environmental and cultural heritage laws around Australia. Of primary concern, Australia’s natural and cultural environment continues to deteriorate while environmental approvals are overly prescriptive, cumbersome, and poorly administered and enforced. Australia has the ignominious distinction of having the highest historical rate of mammal extinctions in the world. Nineteen ecosystems have been assessed as ‘collapsing’. The National Environmental Law Association (NELA) has engaged with several inquiries in 2019–2021 concerning the reform of Australia’s main national environmental law – the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) (the EPBC Act), the Queensland Parliamentary Inquiry into the Environmental and Other Legislation (Reversal of Great Barrier Reef Protection Measures) Amendment Bill 2021 (the Dametto Bill), amongst other inquiries. NELA has recommended that both the Australian Government’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Standards and Assurance) Bill 2021 (Cth) (the Standards and Assurance Bill) and the Queensland private member’s Dametto Bill not proceed. NELA is concerned that the Bills, if passed, will further erode Australia’s ecosystems, species, natural and cultural heritage values and the rights of First Nations peoples – all matters that the Australian Government is obliged to protect under international agreements, and that most Australians cherish.
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