Nature’s Voice Victorian National Parks Association newsletter | Number 14 | October-November 2012
Federal folly angers local communities Matt Ruchel VNPA Executive Director
T
he Gillard Government wants to remove federal oversight on matters of national environmental significance and transfer many of its powers to the states. The move has sent shockwaves through the community. National environmental laws were used by the Federal Government to block the Baillieu Government’s bungled attempt to introduce cattle grazing into the Alpine National Park under the guise of ‘science’. The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the EPBC Act) is the Australian Government’s central piece of environmental legislation. It provides a legal framework to protect and manage nationally and internationally important flora, fauna, ecological communities and heritage places. We believe the Act needs strengthening, not weakening because of pressure from big business, mining and coalition state governments, which do not act in the national interest – they are, after all, states. In fact state governments are very often developers in their own right. They build ports, freeways, roads, desalination plants and dams, and if you live in Victoria, potentially hotels in national parks.
Inside
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Red gum railway sleeper backdown
The elusive Swift Parrot migrates from Tasmania to the mainland once a year, where it feeds on nectar and pollen produced by Victoria’s box-ironbark forests. As with other threatened species, federal environmental laws are important for its protection. Photo: Chris Tzaros
More than 150 people from inner Melbourne, Geelong, Bendigo and the Mornington Peninsula heard concerns from the VNPA and the Environmental Defenders Office about proposed changes to national environmental laws at public forums held across the state in September. Many at the meetings aired concerns for their own special places, including Bendigo’s Wellsford Forest (an important box-ironbark forest), and the Wombat State Forest near Daylesford, which is threatened by the development of an open cut gold mine. The forums also revealed that Melbourne, Geelong and Mornington Peninsula residents are increasingly
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Less “red tape” a risk to bushland
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Hooded Plovers need our help
concerned about marine and coastal development, the destruction of green wedges and critically endangered grassland habitats as well as tourism development in parks. And in a striking move the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) just last month urged the Australian Government to fulfill its international commitments by retaining its statutory powers to assess and regulate impacts on threatened and migratory species, internationally significant wetlands and World Heritage areas.
Take action Find out what you can do, visit protecttheplacesyoulove.vnpa.org.au