[Greens-Media] Garrett hypocrisy on biodiversity highlighted by new report: Greens

[Norton, Tim (Sen R. Siewert)]

Garrett hypocrisy on biodiversity highlighted by new report: Greens
Tuesday 18th August 2009

The Minister for the Environment needs to start making his actions match his rhetoric, the Australian Greens said today.

"Launching Australia's Biodiversity and Climate Change in Brisbane yesterday, he was quick to outline the need to change the way that we in Australia manage the environment so that it is more about preventative action and protecting ecosystems at a landscape scale," said Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert.

"The report calls for 'integrated regional approaches' as part of a re-orientation of our policy frameworks - but the Government's Caring for our Country program has devastated regional capacity and seriously undermined community engagement by slashing regional NRM funding and junking long-term plans."

"It is clear that managing ecosystem resilience will require a long-term commitment to ongoing management and resources - an approach which is not supported under the current approach of short-term competitive funding for individual projects."

"There are good recommendations in the report, but Mr Garrett's recent decisions on the environment will not deliver outcomes in line with these recommendations. His Caring for Our Country program is a mess. It has undermined the work of community groups, lead to a massive loss of staff and knowledge from landcare and natural resource management groups, and will lead to a massive loss of effort around the country."

"Far from being the next step in our approach to environmental management and stewardship it has taken us back backwards," said Senator Siewert.
 

"The wave of extinctions being documented across northern Australia is just one glaring example of a major landscape-scale problem requiring urgent preventative action that Minister Garrett's Caring for Our Country program has overlooked."

"Another is Phytophthora dieback prevention, which is urgently needed to protect thousands of hectares across Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania - and yet it has also been overlooked for Federal funding."

"Far from 'revolutionising' natural resource management funding, Minister Garrett has taken us away from a longer-term strategic planning approach, to a system where there is no consideration of what has gone before or how individual projects link up to achieve landscape-scale goals," Senator Siewert concluded.

For more information or media enquiries please call Tim Norton on 0418 401 180