The environment - few wins
Improvements by the Greens Party include:
- An end to deforestation loopholes (RFAs) that have allowed native forest logging to escape national oversight
- Blocking fast-tracking of fossil fuel projects although ‘National interest’ is yet to be defined.
- Some checks on handing approval powers to states and territories
- Improved assessment and focus on land clearing
- Environmental standards are reasonable but administrative and ministerial discretion will apply and only two standards have been developed
- Offsets scheme will not apply to critically endangered species habitat
Furthermore: Ministerial discretion over the new national environmental standards will apply for development applications and developers to pay into a “restoration fund” to compensate for biodiversity loss, despite evidence it worsens biodiversity loss.
As in the original bill, definitions matter, like ‘unacceptable impacts’, ‘serious impairment’ can be endlessly reinterpreted.
See more here from The Conversation
See here for the latest actual inventory emissions in the last year showing a mere 2.2% reduction:
