If Albanese can't pass this test, ‘we should stop dreaming': former Treasury boss

Sydney Morning Herald

a day ago

Anthony Albanese's plan to build 1.2 million homes, improve the nation's transport system and lift Australians' living standards will fail if the government cannot fix broken nature laws and arrest the decline of the environment, former Treasury boss Ken Henry warns.
In a speech to the National Press Club on Wednesday, Henry will argue that despite pressure on fast-track important developments, the country also needs a resilient and rich natural environment. Without that, Australia will be just 'building a faster highway to hell'.
Henry, who served as Treasury secretary under John Howard and Kevin Rudd, will argue there is 'no chance' the government will reach its many key policy goals without fixing the broken project approval system in the federal Environment Protection Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act and also state environmental laws.
'If we can't achieve environmental law reform, then we should stop dreaming about more
challenging options,' he will tell the press club.
'Boosting productivity and resilience relies upon environmental law reform.'
The 2020 Samuel Review found the EPBC Act, established by the Howard government in 2000, was failing. The regime overlays state nature laws to protect matters of national environmental significance, like threatened species or rare habitats.
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Since colonisation, about 100 of Australia's unique flora and fauna species have become extinct. The rate of loss, which is as bad as anywhere else on Earth, shows no sign of slowing, with more than 2000 species listed as threatened with extinction and ongoing habitat degradation.
The Albanese government promised in 2022 to bolster the EPBC Act with the creation of an Environment Protection Agency (EPA). A federal watchdog, the agency would police compliance of big projects that affect the environment, such as mines and tourism resorts, handing out fines for breaches.