Abbott/Turnbull Government record on environment and climate action

Environment Minister Greg Hunt achievements

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has confirmed that he will call a double dissolution election for Saturday July 2. Time to review the Abbott/Turnbull record on the environment.

Climate Action Moreland reports on a recent public opinion survey that 57 per cent of Australians think the Australian Government is not doing enough on climate change and want to see more climate action.

The Australian Conservation Foundation have prepared a list of the Good, The bad, and the inconclusive achievements of the Government with Environment Minister Greg Hunt. You be the judge:

The Abbott/Turnbull Government environmental record

We’ve examined the Abbott/Turnbull Government’s environmental record and found much more bad than good.

As the federal election draws nearer, it’s worth remembering the world we hand on to future generations is the result of decisions our elected representatives make today.

The bad

✘  1. Repealed the price on pollution, making Australia the first country to remove a working carbon price and leaving no mechanism to make polluters pay for their pollution; Australia’s carbon pollution is now rising as a result.

✘  2. Cut the Renewable Energy Target from 41,000GWh to 33,000GWh, following a confidence-sapping 18-month review, and included the burning of ‘biomass’ from native forests as ‘renewable energy’.

✘  3. Abolished the Climate Commission, a trusted body that produced factual and independent information on climate change for the Australian community.

✘  4. Intends to abolish the Climate Change Authority, Australia’s independent climate science advisory group.

✘  5. Approved Adani’s proposal for the biggest coal mine in Australia’s history.

✘  6. Limited Australia’s pollution target to 5 per cent by 2020, despite advice from Climate Change Authority that conditions have been met for the target to be strengthened.

✘  7. Set target to cut pollution by 26–28 per cent by 2030, which is not consistent with keeping global warming below 1.5°C and makes Australia’s target one of the weakest among developed nations.

✘  8. Approved one of the world’s largest coal ports, at Abbot Point, near Bowen.

✘  9. Abolished Ministerial positions of Climate Change and Science (in 2016 the Science portfolio was reinstated).

✘  10. Scrapped the popular and effective Home Energy Saver scheme.

✘  11. Scrapped the Energy Efficiency Opportunities program.

✘  12. Dropped election commitment for One Million Solar Roofs.

✘  13. Signed deal to sell uranium to India, contrary to the advice of parliamentary committee.

✘  14. Signed deal to sell uranium to Ukraine, home of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and scene of ongoing civil and military instability.

✘  15. Asked UNESCO to de-list 74,000 hectares of Tasmanian forests that had been nominated for World Heritage Listing (UNESCO rejected the request).

✘  16. Established unnecessary and divisive office of Wind Farm Commissioner.

✘  17. Attempted to abdicate federal responsibility for national environmental approvalsand give that power to state governments.

✘  18. Attempted to amend national environment law to remove water trigger.

✘  19. Approved cattle grazing in the Alpine National Park.

✘  20. Disallowed additional protection of Murray-Darling ecological systems under national environment laws.

✘  21. Abolished the National Water Commission.

✘  22. Facilitated the selling of environmental water to irrigators in order to pay for environmental infrastructure.

✘  23. Removed funding for Environmental Defenders’ Offices.

✘  24. De-funded the Grants to Voluntary Environment, Sustainability & Heritage Organisations, which supported more than a 150 groups across the country.

✘  25. Attempted to repeal s.487 of the EPBC Act to remove the right of communities to seek judicial review of decisions made under national environment law.

✘  26. Attempted to silence environment groups by establishing a parliamentary inquiry that threatens to remove groups’ critical Deductible Gift Recipient status.

✘  27. Cut funding to renewable energy agency ARENA and replaced grants based approach with debt-and-equity funding experts worry will not support emerging technologies.

✘  28. Cut climate science positions at CSIRO.

The good

✔   1. Attended UN Paris Climate Summit and signed Paris Agreement.

✔  2. Maintained funding for the excellent Indigenous Rangers (Indigenous Landcare) program.

✔  3. Established office of Threatened Species Commissioner and hosted the first national Threatened Species Summit

✔  4. Announced National Innovation & Science Agenda and invested $142m in theNational Environmental Science Program, including $30m in a Threatened Species Hub

✔  5. Funded some projects to tackle feral animals and help threatened species recover.

✔  6. Created new Ministerial portfolio of Cities and the Built Environment.

The jury’s still out

~  1. Created the Emission Reduction Fund, which will achieve some good outcomes, but is inefficient and unable to deliver emissions reductions on the scale required.

~  2. Combined the Carbon Farming Initiative with the Emissions Reduction Fund, making some improvements but adding some risks.

~  3. Committed ‘at least $1bn’ in climate finance over five years for developing nations, but took the money from Australia’s existing overseas aid budget.

~  4. Announced new Clean Energy Innovation Fund, but with funding taken from restructuring the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

~  5. Established 20 Million Trees and Green Army programs, but abolished the Biodiversity Fund and redirected funding away from Landcare.

~  6. Launched review of Australia’s marine reserves, leaving the reserves’ future uncertain.

~  7. Launched review of vehicle emissions standards, even though it is already well-known Australia’s standards are lagging behind other developed countries.

Thanks to the Australian Conservation Foundation
The Abbott/Turnbull government environmental record by Australian Conservation Foundation is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.