Victoria\u2019s Healesville Sanctuary is helping to protect and restore the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot which is predicted to be extinct within five years.<\/p>\n
With only 50 known to be left in the wild, a major breeding program aims to release up to 20 pairs of the migratory birds annually.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s just one of several threatened species programs supported by the sanctuary near Melbourne, which attracts about 400,000 people every year \u2013 many of them schoolchildren \u2013 who visit to learn about and experience nature.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a case study that the author of the 2021 review into the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, Graeme Samuel, keeps front of mind.<\/p>\n
Because the \u201cpure politics\u201d of the debate, he says, obscures what the conversation is about \u2013 nature \u2013 and its intrinsic value to our communities.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s not about environment or economy. It\u2019s both.<\/p>\n
The EPBC Act, the latest iteration of which has just hit the federal parliament, touches on everything from \u201cproductivity to renewable energy, mining, nature and climate goals, the housing crisis, cultural heritage, and resources and energy security\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s a big moment, or it could be.<\/p>\n As former Treasury secretary Ken Henry has said, with \u201cglistening ambition\u201d Australia can \u201cbuild an efficient, jobs-rich, globally competitive, high-productivity, low-emissions nature-rich economy\u201d.<\/p>\n But if you want to see a case study of politics in action, look no further than nature law reform, or the lack of it.<\/p>\n The last significant federal reform in this space happened under the Howard government a full quarter of a century ago.<\/p>\n That version of the act is undeniably no longer fit for purpose in the face of massive loss of plants and animals and historically significant technological and industrial change.<\/p>\n Successive reports have detailed catastrophic loss of species<\/a> that is \u201congoing and accelerating\u201d. Meanwhile, business describes cumbersome environmental regulation as \u201cthe new enemy of progress\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWithout faster project approvals we will never meet our net zero ambitions, for instance,\u201d says Bran Black, the CEO of the Business<\/a> Council of Australia.<\/p>\n It\u2019s threading those two needles simultaneously that has been the problem.<\/p>\n And inevitably, that has led to a long-running game of political point-scoring.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a fine playing field but there are no winners.<\/p>\n It will be five years in January since Samuel delivered his review of the act, commissioned by then environment minister Sussan Ley under the Morrison government.<\/p>\n At the time, she indicated qualified acceptance of the review recommendations, and released a pathway for reform which didn\u2019t progress due to the 2022 change of government.<\/p>\n Coming in with high expectations from those who care about the natural environment, the Albanese government subsequently released its ill-fated \u201cnature positive plan\u201d, also based on Samuel\u2019s report. That legislative package was shelved before the 2025 election, in a definitive broken promise by Labor following pressure from business interests in Western Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n