Labor will establish an independent environment protection agency to enforce national conservation laws and collect data on the plight of the country’s wildlife if it wins the election.
An Albanese government would also promise to give an annual ministerial statement on Australia’s role in international negotiations on environmental issues, suggesting it would look to play a leadership role at global biodiversity talks and on issues such as whale protection.
The opposition environment spokesperson, Terri Butler, said the environment was in crisis and a Labor government would “restore trust and confidence in environmental decision-making”.
She said Labor would establish a national EPA with two divisions – one responsible for compliance assurance and enforcement, and the other for environmental data, information and analysis.
The data division would aim to address widely acknowledged concerns that not enough is known about the plight of Australia’s environment, including threatened species and ecosystems. Multiple official reports have found environmental protection has been held back by major gaps in information and monitoring.
Butler said the establishment of an EPA would “restore trust and confidence” in decisions affecting the environment. “This is a really important step to improving decision making, with better data and an independent compliance division,” she said.
The commitment on an EPA follows a major review of environment laws headed by the former competition watchdog head, Graeme Samuel, last year which called for the creation of an office with independent oversight of environmental compliance and a “custodian” responsible for providing reliable data.
Environment groups have also called for an independent environmental regulator, and Labor took a similar promise to the 2019 election.
Labor has promised it will make a full response to the Samuel review, which found consecutive governments had failed to arrest the decline of Australia’s unique plants and animals. The Morrison government did not provide a full response to the review in the last term of parliament and has rejected calls for an independent EPA.
The opposition said it would consult on an EPA funding model in government, and it was likely to include contributions from sectors subject to environmental compliance. It said it would continue to work with groups and experts that were consulted as part of the Samuel review to try to achieve “durable reform” and laws that “work better for everyone”.
Labor has promised to set a domestic target to protect 30% of land and 30% of sea areas by 2030, a goal the Morrison government has backed at a global level as part of international biodiversity negotiations. The ALP said it would take a leadership role in international negotiations over agreements on the high seas and on marine garbage and microplastics.
Butler said Labor would work with state and territory governments on world heritage issues, including pursuing world heritage listing of Murujuga in northern Western Australia and the Flinders Ranges, and expanding world heritage protections for the Cape York Peninsula and West Kimberley.
She said a Labor government would look to add cultural and Indigenous heritage values as part of world heritage and national heritage listed areas, including the Daintree, and would deliver $276m that had been promised, but not fully delivered, for the Kakadu national park.
The Australian Conservation Foundation welcomed the commitment to establish an independent EPA. The chief executive, Kelly O’Shanassy, said Samuel’s landmark report warned national environmental laws were outdated and ineffective.
“For too long these laws have not been properly enforced, and ACF has long argued that we need a well-resourced independent regulator,” she said. “The EPA’s proposed data custodian role would also help to address the deficiencies identified by Prof Samuel and ensure that decision-makers, business and the community have access to the best available data, information and science.”
O’Shanassy said the commitment to international leadership was welcome ahead of international negotiations for a new global deal for nature.
WWF-Australia also welcomed the commitment to an EPA, but stressed its independence needed to be enshrined in law. “We would certainly stress it needs to be a statutory independent agency,” WWF’s head of policy, Quinton Clements, said.
Clements said he hoped that in addition to committing to global biodiversity targets, a Labor government would sign a leaders’ pledge for nature that had already been endorsed by more than 90 countries.
The Greens last week declared the decline of the country’s wildlife “one of the greatest failings in our nation’s history”, and said they would push for a target of zero extinctions by 2030 and the introduction of an independent environmental regulator. The minor party wants $24.4bn dedicated to nature restoration over a decade.
