We've had nearly 10 years of oil, gas and coal appeasers in government, hooligans who harmed our nation. The only Liberal ever serious about climate change, Malcolm Turnbull, was first hamstrung and later knifed by his party. Then we had a series of people pretending to be ministers for the environment. Seriously, a government which happily housed Matt Canavan, king of coal pushers, was never going to fix all that ailed our beloved country.
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And that ongoing disrespect and ignorance made Australians despair. As Ant Sharwood, editor of new publication The Green Canary (in the coalmine), writes, we were "numbed into believing that surely someone in power, somewhere, somehow, would seriously address crucial national green issues like the the climate crisis, the health of the Murray-Darling Basin, ongoing land-clearing, and the ever-increasing extinction rate of native mammals and other species."
The good news is now we have a new government with two competent ministers to deal with our crisis. They come with the traditional Labor baggage of putting jobs before the environment but this report will focus them. It must.
First, Chris Bowen, the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, who's been studying up for the gig since he became shadow early last year. And Tanya Plibersek, the Minister for the Environment, who has had to cram like crazy since her surprise appointment to the portfolio after the election yet stood up to face the National Press Club and the attendant questions this week without flinching.
Now, we have horrific news from a new(ish) report State of the Environment (actually an old report, kept in a cupboard by the Coalition for months in case it frightened us. Believe me we are frightened).
Our house is burning. And it's hard to know what to do first because everything has gone to shit and if we don't do a bunch of stuff fast, we will destroy our home. So I did what every sensible person does when faced with a catastrophe. I asked people who know what they are talking about to tell me what the new government must do to repair the damage and to insure the future.
First, I asked Tim Flannery, who ran the Climate Commission until Tony Abbott tragically abolished it in 2013. He is clear on what the new government should do: no new gas fields or coal mines. A much faster shift to clean energy. Yes, in the extremely short term, deal with the extremely short-term shortage but speed up work on the energy transition and have a clear leadership position on that. Work with the states on practical on-ground measures to protect endangered species, then do the same thing with Pacific nations.
"Why don't you set up an entity that can engage and share our expertise on biodiversity conservation?" That was definitely directed at the government, not me. "Do something global."
He is quite encouraging about Labor's moves but says the pace needs to pick up.
"They are moving in the right direction but it takes time to develop new policies, to get all your ducks in a row.
"We have wasted years and we need strong policies sooner rather than later."
Flannery spoke to me from glorious (and freezing) Karijini National Park, where he's making a documentary. And it's there that the Banyjima, Kurrama and Innawonga people practised fire-stick farming. Terri Janke, one of the authors of the devastating State of the Environment report, says we must once again recognise traditional knowledge as a solution. We need Indigenous rangers and we need to acknowledge the role of traditional stewardship in caring for country.
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In other words, listen to the people, work with the people, who cared for this country for thousands of years without destroying it, who managed species, production and the ongoing sustainability of forests. For too long, Australians have practised just one way of doing things, the Western way. Stop that right now. Janke is much calmer and considered than me but seriously, she was urgent about this.
And what of Hugh Possingham, Queensland's Chief Scientist? Blunt as.
"Australians may not be fully aware of how much of our prosperity and happiness is tied up in preserving biodiversity. Biodiversity improves mental health, pollinates crops, brings tourists, reduces flooding and sustains food production. Without it we cease to be Australia and Australians."
He says the key priority for the federal government should be to provide incentives and payments for land managers to protect, manage and restore habitat.
'Biodiversity still faces many other threats such as invasive species. Investment in preventing invasive species arriving in Australia, eradicating and containing them, will deliver enormous benefits to biodiversity."
Targets. Priorities.
'We still don't know enough about which species are in decline and what interventions will work to recover threatened species - so we need innovative ideas and evaluation of actions - that is called science."
The Climate Council's CEO Amanda McKenzie, too, has a short, blunt list of actions for the government. I'll add the new ones to my growing list here. Get electric vehicles on the road and polluting vehicles off. Speed up a just transition by growing good jobs in clean local manufacturing, including green steel, green concrete. Make batteries and heat pumps here. Scale our mining of lithium and rare earths critical to the global transition.
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"We could become a place of choice for international markets."
And, doh, end our relationship with fossil fuels. Stop Scarborough, Beetaloo and Narrabri, just carbon bombs waiting to go off. No subsidies. And for earth's sake, apply carbon triggers in the laws which apply to the environment.
Speaking of triggers, Lock the Gate coordinator Carmel Flint reminds us that just before the election, Labor committed to extend a water trigger to cover shale and gas fracking. Any of those projects should have to go through federal assessments. Make coal and gas miners abide by ground water allocation rules. They don't and they must.
And on behalf of all of us, pleads Cassandra Star, associate professor of public policy and director of the Climate and Sustainability Policy Research group at Flinders University, increase the ambition of the climate target, because of its compounding impact on environmental decline.
Star says environmental management in Australia is poorly coordinated. To fix that, we need better recognition of the need for the states and federal government to work together in improving/safeguarding/rehabilitating the environment.
"We need a vision, planned and delivered, of what the future of Australia looks like in a post-carbon future."
And that, dear Labor, is the list of desperate pleas on behalf of our nation. We all hope you can deliver.
- Jenna Price is a visiting fellow at the Australian National University and a regular columnist