WA mining and media ‘naysayers’ spreading misinformation about nature reforms, Senate hears

Graeme Samuel told a federal Senate hearing into the extinction crisis that “naysayers” in WA’s mining sector had run a campaign of “negative publicity” against improved environmental protections.

But its broader package of promised new nature laws, including national environmental standards, has been deferred to an unspecified date, with environment minister Tanya Plibersek giving no guarantee it would be delivered in this term of government.

The government has been accused of breaking a promise to deliver a single package of environmental legislation to fix Australia’s broken system of nature laws.

Aerial video shows mass coral bleaching on Great Barrier Reef amid global heat stress event – videoSamuel told the hearing that conservation groups worried about the pace of reform should “take a chill pill”.

The Australian Conservation Foundation’s Brendan Sydes, in response to Samuel’s suggestion that conservationists “take a chill pill”, said the frustration and disappointment was understandable when consultation about the state of Australia’s environmental protections had been occurring since 2019.

Jennifer Rayner, the Climate Council’s head of policy and advocacy, told senators “glaciers are literally melting while this reform moves forward at a glacial pace”.