‘Environment crisis': Wilderness Society pursues parties over election commitments

An influential green group is seeking concrete commitments from the major parties and potential crossbenchers for an overhaul of environmental protection laws and the establishment of new independent regulatory agencies, before Australians cast their votes on 18 May.

 Bill Shorten has agreed to introduce a new environment
act but the Wilderness Society is seeking concrete
commitments before the election.

Lyndon Schneiders, the national campaigns director of the Wilderness Society, wrote widely to politicians on Monday seeking agreement to an ambitious legislative and regulatory overhaul – but the hurry up is directed predominantly at Labor, which has offered an in-principle commitment but has not yet produced a final policy, and the people likely to form the crossbench in the next parliament.

The campaign intervention, which follows significant controversy over a rushed environmental approval for the controversial Adani coal project which the Morrison government ticked off just before calling the election, comes as the green group has amassed a campaign war chest of $400,000 from members and supporters, allowing it to run substantial field operations in targeted seats.

Read the story from The Guardian by Katharine Murphy - “‘Environment crisis': Wilderness Society pursues parties over election commitments.”