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Environmental laws ‘fail’ to prevent future deadly pandemics
In a letter to Environment Minister Sussan Ley, 180 professionals have criticised laws that they argue have failed to properly protect the environment and prevent future disasters.
Naomi Neilson
With back-to-back crises in Australia threatening the health and wellbeing of many victims across the country, 180 medical professionals have called out the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act) for failing to protect against future issues.
“We note that EPBC Act review is occurring during a period where Australia experienced back-to-back crises of extraordinary scale in [the] 2019-2020 ‘Black Summer’ bushfires and now the COVID-19 pandemic. These events highlight the fundamental independence of humans and the natural world and consequences for human health when this is ignored,” the letter read.
The letter takes particular issue with the environmental issues that were ignored – or were not known – when the act was drafted in the 1990s. Particularly, the EPBC Act at the time did not relate to climate change, biodiversity loss and human health.
As such, the EPBC Act “failed to achieve its objectives” of protecting the environment and promoting ecological sustainable development and biodiversity conservation. Australia is currently the second-highest-rated source of biodiversity loss in the world and has been globally recognised as a land clearing and deforestation hotspot.
“Our scarce waters are in decline, threatening the survival of numerous rural and regional communities, our agriculture productivity and our food security. Some marine habitats like the Great Barrier Reef face collapse,” the letter read.
“Climate change, one of the biggest threats to our natural environment, biodiversity and to human health, is not considered by the EPBC Act at all.”
Naomi Neilson
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
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