At the release today of Australia State of the Environment 2021, Tanya Plibersek, Minister for the Environment and Water acknowledged the need for increased environmental funding, made a commitment to protecting 30 per cent of land and sea, and recognised the critical role that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and local communities must play in curbing the tide of our environmental decline.
The Board of the Australian Land Conservation Alliance supports the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the Constitution and an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament.
Independent review findings into the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 are an opportunity for the NSW Government to recognise the increasingly important value of protecting its remaining biodiversity.
ALCA’s submission highlights the opportunity for Australia’s Hydrogen Strategy to explicitly recognise the importance of nature. It outlines the importance of hydrogen developments – and the largescale renewable energy being deployed to produce hydrogen – are undertaken with nature, and not instead of it.
ALCA recommends the strongest levels of protection for the critical Lake Eyre rivers and floodplain ecosystems, and that the Government investigate the potential to utilise private protected areas to build upon the proposed protections.
ALCA welcomes the environmental indicators announced in the national wellbeing budget framework.
