Protecting Australia's unique ecosystems or extractivism as usual ?

"With one of the highest rates of extinction in the world and more than 7.7 million hectares of threatened species habitat destroyed since 2000, Australia is considered by many to be in a biodiversity crisis...The agenda is entirely geared towards fast-tracking development."
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2025-05-01/federal-election-2025-nature-laws-environmental-policies/105203334
#BiodiversityCrisis #EPBCAct #Biodiversity #ecosystems #conservation #NaturePositive #NatureNegative #EnvironmentalLaws #FossilFuels #koalas #LoggingImpacts #NSWLogging #governance #failure #extractivism

"The hypermarketization of everything", Quinn Slobodian, 2025

Bean counters are attempting to put a monetary value on the complexity of nature

Think of a logged forest.

"The value of the timber produced counts towards Australia’s gross domestic product. But cutting trees down also produces a loss. For example, the forest is no longer there for the community to enjoy. And it no longer provides “services” such as filtering water and preventing soil erosion."

"There are many reasons to measure the value of those services. For example, governments might then be able to charge a logging company a licence fee which reflects the community value of the forest. A government may decide the forest is too valuable to allow logging at all, or the fee may just be set too high for any company to find it profitable to log it."

"To date, the value lost when trees are cut down, or other ecosystems are damaged, has not been included in the national accounts. The new environmental accounts seek to change this."
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https://theconversation.com/new-report-slaps-an-official-price-tag-on-australias-precious-natural-assets-250623

Hayek's Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right
How neoliberals turned to nature to defend inequality after the end of the Cold War,
Quinn Slobodian, 2025 >>
https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9781890951917/hayeks-bastards
#nature #Biodiversity #EPBCAct #NatureNegative #Naturepositive #complexity #ecosystems #degradation #value #loss #NativeForests #extractivism #hypermarketization

"The inherited pro-extinction settings remain – bugger the country."

"If the majority of the community – by definition, the political centre – is resolutely against the destruction of the natural world, why is our political and regulatory system stuck on the “kill” setting?"

" We have the ignominious distinction of having among the highest rates of deforestation and species extinction in the world. Even the koala is listed as endangered in Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory."
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https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/topic/environment/2025/02/22/wa-must-not-dictate-nature-policy#mtr
#extinction #lobby #extractivism #ResourceFrontiers #WA #ecocide #Biodiversity #koalas #ecosystems #collapse #FossilFuels #NatureNegative #destruction

Australian nature: if our laws don’t radically change, environmental degradation will continue

"This country has a long history of taking its unique wildlife and landscapes for granted – but what has happened in this term of parliament is remarkable."

"As Australia struggles to pass strong environmental laws, native wildlife pays the price, with habitat disappearing at an astonishing rate here is something significant missing from most of the political and media discussion about the Australian government’s promised, and now abandoned, nature protection laws: the environment.Logically, it should be a focus of the debate. In practice, it barely gets a look-in."
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/commentisfree/2025/feb/04/australian-nature-if-our-laws-dont-radically-change-environmental-degradation-will-continue
#biodiversity #wildlife #ecosystem #conservation #extinction #destruction 236 #extrativism #NSWLogging #NaturePositive #NatureNegative

A federal nature watchdog and broken environment laws
Plibersek praised nature positive deal with Pocock and Greens as ‘critical’ before PM scrapped it, documents reveal

"Pushing the EPA off the agenda risks alienating pro-environment Labor MPs and grassroots members, who have spent years campaigning for a federal nature watchdog. The EPA forms part of Labor’s nature positive plan to overhaul federal environment protection laws."
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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jan/30/tanya-plibersek-praised-nature-positive-deal-with-david-pocock-and-greens-before-pm-scrapped-it-documents-reveal

WA premier warns east coast latte sippers over ‘nature positive’ laws >>
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/wa-premier-warns-east-coast-latte-sippers-over-nature-positive-laws-20250129-p5l83v
#NaturePositive #EPA #watchdog #EnvironmentLaws #NatureNegative #mining #lobby #extractivism #SubimperialEnforcer #NSWLogging #conservation #laws

The Nature Positive deal: “The barbarians flexed their muscles and that was that.”

"Environment minister agreed detail with Greens but the PM intervened after lobbying from WA premier and miners. But sadly, until now, we have not been able to land an agreement, because it seems the miners and the loggers in this place have more influence than the environment minister, and that’s a real shame...The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, which Plibersek’s bill would have amended, would have helped repair “a completely broken system”.
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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/nov/29/tanya-plibersek-deal-on-nature-laws-was-overruled-by-anthony-albanese
#Biodiversity #governance #NaturePositive #NatureNegative #NSWLogging #loggingIndustry #mining #deforestation #landclearing #extractivism #environment #laws #Australia #law

Australia-wide ban on native-forest logging?

"The Greens have dropped their demand for a climate trigger to be incorporated in the government’s stalled Nature Positive legislation, indicating they are now prepared to pass the bills in return for a Australia-wide ban on native-forest logging alone."

“Closing the legal loopholes that allow large-scale native forest logging and land clearing to go unassessed will have tangible impacts for the protection of critical habitat in Tasmania, NSW, and northern Australia, where deforestation is out of control."
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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/nov/18/greens-drop-climate-trigger-demand-in-attempt-to-restart-nature-positive-talks-with-labor
#loggingIndustry #NSW #ClimateEmergency #BiodiversityCrisis #NaturePositive #NatureNegative #plantations #deforestation #ResourceFrontiers #TheGreatKoalaNationalPark #extractivism

Nature Positive
Australia's collapsing ecosystems declared a 'critical infrastructure'

Australia has destroyed and degraded nature. The remaining collapsing ecosystems are declared a 'critical infrastructure'. This new system of governance to organise life is framed as a 'Nature Positive' policy with the help of a large consulting business.

The remaining nature is now a market not a common good and has no rights (Rights of Nature laws). The ‘more-than-human-worlds’ becomes a market of 'ecosystem services' to serve a few of the human species. Nature is now a mere 'essential infrastructure' like roads, highway, sewers, sewage etc.

>>
"At least 19 Australian ecosystems have been reported to show signs of collapse or near collapse."
https://soe.dcceew.gov.au/overview/environment/ecosystems

"Nature Positive Plan:
better for the environment, better for business." au gov
https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/epbc/publications/nature-positive-plan

"The term “nature-positive”
has become a call to action across society and business." PwC
https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/about/corporate-sustainability/environmental-stewardship/nature.html

##biodiversity #nature #NaturePositive #infrastructure #EcosystemServices #governance #CriticalInfrastructure #KMGBF #depletion #ResourceFrontiers #NatureNegative #Unsustainability

Halt all operations in public forests

"Margo Kingston was arrested on Thursday after locking herself on to machinery at a protest against logging in Bulga state forest in mid-north NSW."

“I’m taking this action to protect this beautiful and biodiverse forest which is full of koalas and greater gliders,” she said before her arrest."
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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/oct/10/margo-kingston-arrested-nsw-anti-logging-protest-ntwnfb
#loggingIndustry #NSWLogging #ProtectProtest #bulga #koalas #gliders #NatureNegative #CitizenScience #bioNet #FossilFuel #machinery #biodiversity #climate #MidNorthCoast #StopNativeForestLogging

The Kunming-Montreal global biodiversity framework:

"Australia should not say that we’ve reached the target because we haven’t."
The government is caving in to polluters and loggers.>>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/oct/08/scientists-contest-environment-ministers-claim-of-blitzing-australias-ocean-reserve-expansion-goal
#NaturePositive #Biodiversity #KunmingMontreal #GBF #Australia #NatureNegative #logging #pollution #FossilFuels