Australia’s environmental crisis ignored as political parties drift Right

Australia’s major parties face mounting criticism for ignoring biodiversity loss and climate risks as political debate shifts further to the Right, writes Sue Arnold.

WHAT WILL IT TAKE for the major Australian political parties to act on rapidly escalating environmental crises? Labor and the Coalition have steadfastly ignored and/or rejected any significant action on the issues, ensuring ongoing weakening of legislation and transparency.

With One Nation rising in the polls, the election of Matt Canavan as National Party leader and Angus Taylor taking over leadership of the Liberal Party, voters may well ask whether Australian political parties are steadily moving to the extreme Right.

Add the Albanese Government’s poor environmental policies and refusal to include a climate trigger in the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, demonstrating the environment is very low on Labor’s political priorities list. The Greens can’t be described as filling the gap, with policies focused on social justice issues.

Liberals and News Corp in lock-step with interests of climate denying billionaires

Despite the spin, the Coalition and News Corp remain mouthpieces for billionaire interests bent on stalling climate action and truth alike.

According to a recent publication by the Biodiversity Council, less than 1% of the national budget is spent on caring for nature, whilst at the same time, the national budget is allocating $26 billion per year to environmental harm.

A spokesperson for the Council said:

We identified 36 separate subsidies for activities that are driving environmental decline, such as native forest logging, fossil fuel mining and projects that clear native vegetation.

This represents about 4% of the total Federal Budget. That is twice as much as the Federal Government invests in supporting government schools nationally, and 25 times more than they spend on looking after nature.

Fossil fuel subsidies top the list, followed by transport infrastructure, agriculture, fisheries and forestry, and business subsidies.

Biodiversity Council member and study co-author Professor Martine Maron from the University of Queensland said:

Reforming these subsidies will benefit nature and save billions of taxpayer dollars each year.

The annual subsidies amount is much greater than what scientists calculate is needed to effectively care for the environment: rehabilitate degraded land, recover threatened species, and protect our water catchments and pollinators.

No doubt the Biodiversity Council’s report is destined to be buried in the political closet of all major parties.

With the news that Matt Canavan has been elected as the new leader of the National Party, the likelihood of any epiphany by the Coalition is not worth a bet.

Nationals’ net zero backflip a disaster for the regions

The National Party’s decision to abandon its net zero target is a betrayal of regional Australia, leaving flood-ravaged communities like Lismore to face the escalating impacts of climate change alone.

His record on the environment makes dismal reading. Canavan has a strong relationship with Barnaby Joyce. He was his chief of staff at one stage and in 2020, he resigned from cabinet to support Joyce in his unsuccessful bid for National Party leadership.

On climate change, from a 2025 ABC interview, Nationals Senator Matt Canavan claimed, “There's just not credible evidence that droughts or floods are getting worse in this country”.

In a Senate speech from July 2023, Canavan said:

We produce about 5.5% of the world’s coal, so we’re not the cause of all of these issues.

It’s not really about the climate. It’s not about that at all. [The Greens] simply want to deindustrialise Western countries.

The Canavan Climate Trust is ‘dedicated to raising awareness of Matt Canavan’s work on behalf of the fossil fuel industry in marginal Liberal electorates’.

Canavan opposes wind farms. Whether his opposition stems from his rejection of climate change or from the replacement of fossil fuels by renewables is difficult to assess.

Many rural folk in Queensland, NSW and Victoria, where wind farm projects cause major destruction of local environments, threatened species and ecosystems, strongly support Canavan’s opposition to wind farms.

At a second reading for the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Reform Bill in 2024, Canavan had this to say:

“In Central Queensland alone, there are 27 wind and solar projects currently proposed or being built with very little oversight. A number of these wind projects will require the top of mountains being cut off to install the wind turbines.”

Changing the climate in the Liberal Party

Now, at least and at last, the line is drawn on climate change and the environment.

In 2023, Canavan threatened to buy a koala suit as he expressed deep concern over the damage wind farms do to koalas and gliders.

I was taken around to see the locations where the UK-based investors plan to build these wind turbines. The hilltops they plan to place them on are pristine nature reserves. They likely look the same as they would have when Captain Cook arrived. They have never been cleared because there was no point trying to run cattle on the steep rocky inclines of a hill.

For that reason, they remain home to a diverse range of endangered species, including sugar gliders and koalas. These hills are also less than 100 kilometres from the Great Barrier Reef catchment area.

Thus far, the National Party hasn’t offered any solutions to the climate crisis or biodiversity losses. By ignoring scientific evidence that catastrophic droughts, floods and bushfires are predicted to intensify as a result of climate change impacts, the Nationals remain a party of political ignorance.

Anthony Albanese prefers a more Trump-like policy stance with support and approval for 35 fossil fuel projects, whilst delivering mega approvals for renewable projects.

A record number of wind farm projects for 2025-2026 have been approved. Plus, the steel industry is rescued by renewables with a grant of $500 million to support local manufacturing of wind components and steel.

Wind farm projects are required to comply with the EPBC Act if they risk significant impacts on threatened species, migratory birds or Commonwealth marine areas.

Projects self-refer. Proponents determine if their action triggers a significant impact on matters of national environmental significance. This fox-guarding-the-henhouse policy is favoured by state and federal governments, leaving destructive projects self-approved.

If a proponent decides to refer a project to the Federal Government for a decision on whether the project is a controlled action requiring approval, issues typically focus on threatened flora, fauna, migratory species and projects involving offshore wind farms.

The Liberal guide to net zero: How to do nothing and call it policy

Independent Australia has obtained what purports to be a briefing paper on net zero to be presented to Liberal Party Parliamentarians this week.

The proponent is required to undertake an Environmental Impact Study, which wind farm opponents claim is not worth the paper it’s written on.

In any event, there’s now a streamlined approval system, with offsets available.

No federal government or bilateral agreement approval for wind farm projects addresses or mentions the impacts of low-frequency noise on fauna and bird species. Or the impact of noise from offshore wind farms on marine mammals, fish and invertebrates.

The massive gaps in state and federal environmental legislation are grounds for urgent royal commissions by state and federal governments. The cumulative impact of wind farms planned and commissioned must be measured against the destruction of ecosystems, threatened species and birds, including non-migratory species. The impact of low-frequency noise on fauna must be addressed.

The growing energy conflict created by fossil fuel projects, wind and solar farms, and offshore wind farms for renewable energy is desperately in need of national discussions that involve not only people impacted but the broader public. Political parties must somehow be forced to accept environmental realities and act on the irrefutable evidence.

Environmental impacts will likely explode exponentially as the Iran war drags on and the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. With Australia importing 50 billion litres of petroleum every year, the CSIRO has come up with another major environmental threat as a solution to the fuel gap.

Forestry residue, agricultural waste, weeds and woody biomass are identified as potential sources of biomass to be converted into liquid fuel. Forestry residue and woody biomass are essential to maintain soil health. Definitions of residue and woody biomass do not provide any protection as anything goes.

The Biodiversity Council’s three top industries benefiting from harmful subsidies provided by the Government must be on the chopping block if Australia’s environment has any chance of continuing to provide economic benefits, healthy humans and a future.