‘Green Wall Street’ in Australia won’t save the planet. Markets value profits, not platypuses

‘Australia doesn’t need elaborate new market mechanisms to save our precious environment. We need to stop approving new housing developments where koalas live, or mines where platypuses live.’ Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Neoliberalism can’t and won’t fix our climate crisis or save our endangered species from extinction.

Market-based policies have failed spectacularly when it comes to aged care, disability care and saving the Murray River. But despite the catalogue of catastrophe, earlier this month Tanya Plibersek said: “Ultimately, I would like to see the market truly valuing nature, so that protecting forests is more valuable than destroying them.”