There is no such thing as a free lunch
Being environment minister is a hard gig. It often requires difficult choices between environmental and economic priorities. In cabinet, the minister is often up against a phalanx of ministers with economic portfolios and overriding political imperatives such as jobs and growth. In the electoral calculus, job and growth trumps environment.
People have been calling for the creation of a ‘climate trigger’ for years, but to little avail. Why? Because things are complicated, and a climate trigger is not the only game in town. It’s no silver bullet, but a quick check on where Australia’s emissions are coming from suggests a climate trigger may have a role to play.
Will ‘Nature Positive’ deliver real change or just a new opportunity for box ticking and political window dressing? As a concept, Nature Positive has plenty of potential for good biodiversity outcomes and its endorsement in the Henry Review is a good thing for biodiversity nationally. However, like ESD before it, Nature Positive can be hollowed out or reduced to a slogan if that is where the politics takes it.
While Labor lifted its game at the last minute with its environmental law reform policy, they can hardly be said to be environmental-policy high performers. So, what’s ‘on the record’ and ‘off the record’ for our new government when it comes to the Environment? What should our new environment minister prioritise?
Unfortunately, it looks to me to be politics all the way down with little priority on good policy reform.