THE HON TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

TRIPLE J HACK

TUESDAY, 4 OCTOBER 2022

 

SUBJECTS: THREATENED SPECIES ACTION PLAN; ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION AND BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION ACT REFORM; PLAN INTERNATIONAL REPORT.

 

DAVE MARCHESE, HOST: Right now almost 2,000 Australian plants and animals are at risk of extinction. More than a hundred have already gone extinct over the past couple of hundred years. And experts have warned that more could go over the next few decades. But today the government’s announced a plan to try to stop extinctions altogether. They want to protect 30 per cent of all land in Australia for conservation, bringing us into line with other countries. But will it work?

 

With us now is Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek. Minister, thanks so much for joining us on Hack.

 

TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Great to be with you.

 

MARCHESE: No new extinctions in Australia. I mean, it sounds good. But Australia has one of the worst extinction rates of any country in the world. Is this actually achievable?

 

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, it’s tough and particularly after the Black Summer bushfires and we had drought brought before that and we’ve got floods after. We’re facing climate change effects across our landscape, human-induced effects. Yeah, it’s a tough thing to do. But I think unless we set a high ambition we’re at real risk of losing the plants and animals and places that we care about. So, we’ve got to be more ambitious.

 

And I think the thing about this plan that sets it apart is that it’s more ambitious than previous plans to deal with threatened species whilst it’s more focused. So, we’re really focusing on 110 priority species and 20 priority places because they’re the species and the places that give you the biggest biodiversity benefit.

 

And we’re also getting some really measurable targets in there. You mentioned protecting 30 per cent of our land and 30 per cent of our oceans by 2030. Well, we’ve signed up to that global target. That translates to 50 million extra hectares of land managed for conservation between now and 2030. So, we’ve really got to put some of these measurable achievements in there as well.

 

MARCHESE: I want to ask about that, because we’ve got more than 50 countries that have already made this pledge to protect 30 per cent of our land and water by the end of the decade. Are we going hard enough? Like, shouldn’t our target be more ambitious?

 

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, I think it’s a really good start. And, in fact, we already have more than 30 per cent of our oceans under conservation management. What we need to do is make sure that we’re looking at representative areas of our ocean and that we don’t kind of rest on our laurels.

 

You’re saying do we need to be more ambitious – I think it’s always great to set the next target and the next target.

 

MARCHESE: I mean, the reason I say that is that you yourself have called us the mammal extinction capital of the world. So, I just feel if we’re, you know, the most at risk of these extinctions – and we had earlier this year in the State of the Environment Report we had experts saying, “oh, we can expect more extinctions in the next few decades”, shouldn’t we have a more ambitious target than the rest of the world?

 

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, I think the global target is pretty ambitious in itself. And look, I’m not going to tell you that we shouldn’t try and do better. We should always be trying to do better. But setting a target of 30 per cent of oceans and 30 per cent of land by 2030, that’s a really important next step on our conservation journey.

 

And that’s not the only thing we’re doing, of course. We’re reforming our environmental laws to give stronger protections to the environment as well as faster decisions to businesses that are, you know, proposing new housing or a new wind farm or whatever it is. And just today I’ve been talking this afternoon with conservation groups and investors about setting up a nature market so that we can see more private sector investment flowing into verifiable benefits for nature, things that you can track over time and see actually providing an environmental benefit, much as our carbon market is providing a way for business to reduce their carbon emissions. So, it’s not one thing we need to do; it’s a whole range of things we need to do.

 

MARCHESE: So, the Government’s saying it wants to protect an extra 50 million hectares of land. Where’s the land going to be? What areas?

 

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, what we want is a really broad cross-section of the landscapes. That means some of it will be rainforest, some of it will be deserts, some of it will be mountains, some of it will be tablelands, you need a really broad section because different plants and animals live in different environments across Australia, so we need a representative range of landscapes.

 

But we have focused on 20 priority areas because we know that they’re areas that already have enormous biodiversity value. And if we can really kind of upgrade the protection around these 20 priority places they have really exponential value for biodiversity preservation.

 

So, we’re looking at landscapes as diverse as, say, Christmas Island up in the northwest to Bruny Island in the southern part of Tasmania to Raine Island up the northeast off the top of Queensland. And then on the mainland we’re looking at everything from Kakadu National Park to the Blue Mountains and the Southern Alps or the Fitz-Stirlings in Western Australia. The whole objective of having these really broadly spaced areas is that each one of them has a unique set of plants and animals, a unique landscape that we need to preserve for future generations. And this is where we get the biggest bang for the effort that we’re putting in.

 

MARCHESE: You’re listening to Hack. I’m Dave Marchese. I’m speaking with the Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek. Minister, we’ve got some messages coming through. Someone says, “2030 is not good enough. How many more will we lose before that?” Somebody else says, “No new mines”.

 

And, I mean, I guess that’s going to be a question a lot of people are thinking about. What about stopping new mine and gas developments? And isn’t that one of the best ways to protect threatened species?

 

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Just on the first thing, 2030 is not good enough – nobody is suggesting that we allow species to become extinct until 2030. 2030 is the target for having 30 per cent of our land and 30 per cent of our oceans protected. And actually, finding another 50 million hectares between now and 2030 is pretty ambitious. And we’re going to have to work with, for example, First Nations people who have really successfully managed Indigenous Protected Areas, for example, to expand those Indigenous Protected areas. We need to make sure that, you know, we’ve got those really broad, diverse examples of our landscape as part of our national estate.

 

MARCHESE: Sure, and what of the mine and gas developments?

 

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Yeah, well, we do need to make sure that when we have new development it’s done in an environmentally sustainable way. And that’s why we’ve promised to update our environmental protection laws. You mentioned the State of the Environment Report earlier. We had another really important report two years ago which was from Professor Graeme Samuel looking at our environmental laws. He determined that they’re not fit for purpose. We’re degrading our environment and business is getting slow and complex decision-making. So, we need to update our laws so that we get faster decisions for business and stronger environmental protections. And that’s exactly what we’re doing at the moment.

 

MARCHESE: Well, I’m just wondering if the mining areas themselves might be areas that need to be protected. Because if we look at the New South Wales Hunter Valley for instance, there are several threatened species. There’s the Hunter Valley Weeping Mile Woodland that’s critically endangered. There’s the Warkworth Sands Woodland, a new species of lizard was discovered on a mine site there. Are areas like the Hunter that have faced significant disturbance over the past few decades going to be a big priority for protection?

 

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, yeah, but I think it’s a bit hard to narrow it down just to the Hunter Valley. I mean, we’ve got mining right across Australia and each one of those proposed new mines will have to be assessed against our environmental laws. I recently said that I was inclined not to allow a new coal mine in Queensland to go ahead because it was less than 10 kilometres from the Great Barrier Reef.

 

We’ll be making decisions on a case-by-case basis assessed against our environmental laws. And, as I said, we’re going to be strengthening those environmental laws next year.

 

MARCHESE: Minister, just quickly on another issue: earlier we just heard about some new research from Plan International which shows that young women and girls are a lot more disillusioned with politics than women and girls overseas – like much more than the global average. What’s the government going to do to turn this around?

 

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, I’m really not surprised that people are disillusioned. And, you know, nine years of Tony Abbott and,  Malcolm Turnbull, Scott Morrison, we’re coming off the back of that. I think there’s two things that the new government has to do to keep faith with young women and with voters more generally. The first is better reflect Australia. And for the first time in history the Labor Party is more than half female. The parliamentary Labor Party is 52 per cent female. So that’s a good start. It does need more than gender diversity. It needs diversity in age, ethnic backgrounds, life experience, family makeup – all of that needs to be better represented in our Parliament.

 

The second thing we need to do, as well as, you know, better reflecting modern Australia, we actually need to do what we said we’d do. That just means keeping our promises. I think people are very, very tired of parliaments, you know, proclaiming this or proclaiming that and then the lived reality falls well short of that.

 

MARCHESE: Yeah.

 

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: We need to keep our promises.

 

MARCHESE: I think a lot of people would agree with that. Let’s hope the pledges as well, this pledge to stop extinctions, people will be hoping that that will be able to be fulfilled. Environment Minister Tanya –

 

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Can I just say one other thing about this –it is really important that the government takes a strong stand here. It’s important that business does its bit. It’s important that scientists and conservationists do too. But ordinary people can play a role in this by getting involved in local Landcare groups, by donating to environmental charities, by doing things as simple as keeping their cats locked up. Don’t let your cat outside. You know, they’re killers. So, everyone can do their bit.

 

MARCHESE: Right. Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, thanks so much for joining us on Hack.

 

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: It’s a pleasure. Thank you.

 

END