Australians are the custodians of unique plants, birds and animals found nowhere else in the world that in many ways help define what it is to be Australian. This is why many Australians love camping, walking, fishing, and 4WDing in the Australian bush. Yet the Australian bush and its wildlife is disappearing at an alarming rate. Australia has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world.

In the 2022 election campaign Labor promised a full response to the Samuel Review, Environmental law reform and the establishment of an Environment Protection Agency (EPA) to provide data, monitoring and compliance with environmental protection laws. This would ensure 30 per cent of Australia’s land and sea areas are protected by 2030, that the law is properly enforced and penalties applied where the law has been contravened.

Labor has repeatedly failed to meet its own deadlines over its current term of government to deliver on its election promise to the Australian people. If elected, I will pressure the government of the day to fully implement these delayed environmental protections.