<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/apr/07/australia-is-in-an-extinction-crisis-why-isnt-it-an-issue-at-this-election>
"Most parliamentarians might be surprised to learn it, but Australians care
about nature. Late last year, the not-for-profit Biodiversity Council
commissioned a survey of 3,500 Australians – three times the size of the
oft-cited Newspoll and representative of the entire population – to gauge what
they thought about the environment. The results tell a striking story at odds
with the prevailing political and media debate.
A vast majority of people – 96% – said more action was needed to look after
Australia’s natural environment. Nearly two-thirds were between moderately and
extremely concerned about the loss of plants and animals around where they
live.
Unsurprisingly, the cost of living was way ahead when people were asked to
nominate the issues they would like leaders to prioritise. But the environment
was in a peloton of four issues vying for second place, alongside housing,
healthcare and the economy.
On what they would like to see done, three-quarters of respondents said they
would back stronger national nature laws, including the introduction of clear
environment standards against which development proposals could be measured and
potentially rejected.
Any survey should be treated cautiously, but the Biodiversity Council’s
director, James Trezise, says it is not a one-off – the results are consistent
with the findings of similar surveys in 2022 and 2023.
They are also clearly at odds with where Anthony Albanese ended this term of
parliament, with Peter Dutton’s support. After bowing to an aggressive
industry-led backlash in Western Australia to shelve a commitment to create a
national Environment Protection Agency, the prime minister rushed through a law
to protect Tasmanian salmon farming from an environmental review.
Longtime campaigners say it meant the term began with a government promising
the environment would be “back on the priority list”, including a
once-in-a-generation revamp of nature laws, but finished with existing
legislation being weakened in a way that could yet have broader ramifications.
The message from peer-reviewed science is blunt: Australia is in an extinction
crisis.
Over the past decade, more than 550 Australian species have been either newly
recognised as at risk of extinction or moved a step closer to being erased from
the planet."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
