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Australians want nature protected—these three environmental problems should be top of the next government's to-do list

Australia is a place of great natural beauty, home to . But it's also particularly vulnerable to introduced animals, diseases, and weeds. Habitat destruction, pollution, and climate change make matters worse. To conserve what's special, we need far greater care.

Unfortunately, successive federal governments have . Australia now has threatened species and "ecological communities"—groups of native species that live together and interact. This threatened list is .

The Albanese government came to power in 2022 promising to reform the nation's nature laws, following a scathing of the laws. But it has failed to do so.

If re-elected, Labor has vowed to and introduce a , in some other form.

The Coalition has not made such a commitment. Instead, it refers to "", balancing the environment and the economy. They've also promised to .

But scientific evidence suggests much more is required to protect Australia's natural wonders.

Fighting invaders

Labor has made a welcome commitment of more than A$100 million to counter "highly pathogenic ." This virulent strain of bird flu is likely to kill millions of native birds and other wildlife.

The government also provided much-needed funding for a network of for threatened mammals. These safe-havens exclude cats, foxes, and other invasive species.

But much more needs to be done. Funding is urgently needed to eradicate , before eradication becomes impossible. Other election commitments to look for include:

• Increased biosecurity funding, to prevent new incursions
• Long-term investment in eradicating major pests and weeds from key sites
• Support for research into new tools to control invasive species such as feral cats, for which no broad-scale solution is currently possible
• No reversal or weakening of policies aimed at curbing invasive pests such as feral horses in national parks
• New laws to ensure are implemented
• Adequate funds to manage invasive species across Australia's
• National coordination and leadership to stop the indiscriminate use of poisons that can spread through ecosystems and food chains, killing non-target animals such as owls, quolls, Tasmanian devils, reptiles, and frogs.

Stopping land clearing and habitat destruction

The states are largely responsible for controlling land clearing. But when land clearing affects "" such as a nationally listed threatened species or ecological community, it becomes a federal matter.

Such proposals are supposed to be referred to the federal environment minister for assessment under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation () Act.

But most habitat destruction . And if it is, it's mostly deemed "." That means no further consideration is required and the development can proceed.

Only about 1.5% of the hundreds of thousands of hectares of in Australia every year is fully assessed under the EPBC Act.

This means our threatened species and ecological communities are suffering a "death by a thousand cuts."

How do we fix this? A starting point is to introduce "national environmental standards" of the kind envisaged in the of the EPBC Act by Professor Graeme Samuel.

A strong Environment Protection Agency could ensure impacts on biodiversity are appropriately assessed and accounted for.

Protecting threatened species

For Australia to turn around its extinction crisis, prospective elected representatives and governments must firmly commit to the following actions.

Stronger environmental law and enforcement is essential for tackling biodiversity decline and extinction. This should include what's known as a "climate trigger," which means any proposal likely to produce a significant amount of greenhouse gases would have to be assessed under the EPBC Act.

This is necessary because climate change is among the greatest threats to biodiversity. But the federal environment minister is currently not legally bound to consider—or authorized to refuse—project proposals based on their greenhouse gas emissions. In an attempt to pass the EPBC reforms in the Senate last year, the their demand for a climate trigger.

Key threats to species, including , invasive species, climate change, and , must be prevented or reduced. Aligning government policies and priorities to ensure environmental goals aren't undermined by economic and development interests is essential.

A large increase in environmental spending—to —is vital. It would ensure sufficient support for conservation progress and meeting legal requirements of the EPBC Act, including listing threatened species and designing and implementing recovery plans when required.

Show nature the money

Neither major party has committed to substantial increases in environmental spending in line with what experts suggest is urgently needed.

Without such increased Australia's conservation record will almost certainly continue to deteriorate. The loss of nature hurts us all. For example, most invasive species not only affect biodiversity; they have major economic costs to productivity.

Whoever forms Australia's next government, we urge elected leaders to act on the wishes of calling for more action to conserve nature.