The Great Barrier Reef is at risk unless nature law reforms close long-standing deforestation loopholes, warns a prominent economist and environmentalist.
Former Treasury secretary Ken Henry says there is a “strong case” for overhauling federal environmental protections to eliminate flaws that allow widespread clearing of native vegetation.
“Neither the present laws, nor the proposed reforms, provide the Australian government with the ability to act to protect the reef from irresponsible clearing, due to a 25-year-old loophole,” the chair of the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation will tell a Brisbane audience.
Dr Henry is also sceptical of the “national interest” override but is otherwise in favour of the reform direction and says change is urgently needed to protect nature and unleash economic productivity.
“Neither the environment nor the economy can afford a third failure,” he will tell the Committee for Economic Development of Australia event on Wednesday.
Australia’s federal government is on its third attempt to overhaul the laws designed to protect nationally-significant species and habitat from destructive development.
The latest try spearheaded by Labor Environment Minister Murray Watt is yet to secure the necessary support from either the Greens or the opposition.
Dr Henry says the proposed reforms offer “substantial improvements”, but are undermined by the persistence of deforestation loopholes and a few other shortcomings.
“The inability of the reforms to deal with the ongoing large scale clearing of native vegetation is a major problem,” he will say.
Queensland is a hotspot for deforestation and landclearing in catchments that flow into the World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef cause erosion that washes debris into waterways.
Sediment, nutrients and pesticides are then sent downstream and into the ocean where they stress corals already under pressure from warming oceans.
Between 2018 and 2022, almost 700,000 hectares of native bushland in reef catchments was cleared, the Australian Marine Conservation Society estimates.
Dr Henry says the case to protect the reef is amplified by its role as an economic engine, citing Deloitte Access Economics research commissioned by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.
“If the reef were an employer, it would be Australia’s fifth largest,” he will say.
Closing the well-known loopholes for forestry and landclearing also has implications for climate change as trees and vegetation are significant carbon sinks.
Forest protection is a priority item at United Nations climate talks presently being held next to the Amazon rainforest, known as the “lungs of the world”.
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