The Morrison Government Is Being Called Out For Withholding A Vital Climate Report For Months
“Voters deserve to know the official state of the environment under this government.”
The Morrison Government has been called out for sitting on a climate report for months to allegedly avoid negative attention.
The official Australia State of the Environment report is compiled every five years and was handed down to Environment Minister Sussan Ley back in December.
Despite being required to table the report in Parliament within 15 days after receiving it, Ley has reportedly been withholding its findings ever since. Now, she’s facing mounting pressure to release the report before the election is called.
The Environment Minister is sitting on a 1200 page report that details the state of Australia’s environment. She’s had the report since last year.
Government must release it before the election is called.
Voters deserve to know the offical state of the environment under this Govt— ?? Sarah Hanson-Young (@sarahinthesen8) March 31, 2022
Labor, the Greens, and independent politicians united last week at an estimates hearing, calling for Ley to confirm a date for the 2021 report’s release, according to The Guardian. Independent MP Zali Stegall said the delay was due to the government wanting to avoid “more bad news” that “would drive home the environmental negligence of this Coalition government”.
The last report in 2016 found that the main pressures facing Australia’s environment continue to be climate change, land-use change, invasive species, as well as habitat fragmentation and degradation. “Evidence shows that the impacts of climate change are increasing, and some of these impacts may be irreversible,” it read.
One of the solutions recommended was better “national leadership”, as well as a renewed focus on policy, action, decision-making support, strategic planning, and reliable financing.
On Monday, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said there is still hope for the world to halve its emissions by 2030 if international governments pull their socks up. It comes off the back of UN Secretary-General António Guterres bagging out Australia for not doing enough to tackle climate change in March, describing us as part of a “handful of holdouts” on meaningful emissions reduction action.
In an interview with ABC’s 7.30 this week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison described Sussan Ley as “one of my finest cabinet ministers and one of our most successful women members of Parliament”.