At our first session in March the Sustainability group looked at the review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. The EPBC Act is the federal government's primary legislation for protecting matters of national environmental significance. These range from protected species and vegetation communities and places such as World Heritage Areas (such as Melbourne's Exhibition Building and Kakadu), amongst others. The review, which was completed in 2019, found the legislation was not working. The condition of all the things that are meant to be protected are declining and continue to decline, particularly those matters in the natural environment. The federal government has responded proposing new legislation. This is to be based on a series of principles including, specific standards for matters of National Environmental Significance against which all decisions will be judged, First Nations engagement and participation in decision making, community engagement and consultation, regional planning and environmental offsets. The new legislation will be available for consultation purposes around the middle of 2023.
At our second session, group members raised items of interest to them for the group to consider. Len ran a video and went through other material concerning the problem of carp in our waterways - he was keen to recruit us to the 'carp haters' collective! Other issues discussed included the importance of trees in cooling urban areas and a wacky idea of blowing dust of the moon to provide a 'sunshade' for the earth to limit atmospheric heating.
John Lane
At our second session, group members raised items of interest to them for the group to consider. Len ran a video and went through other material concerning the problem of carp in our waterways - he was keen to recruit us to the 'carp haters' collective! Other issues discussed included the importance of trees in cooling urban areas and a wacky idea of blowing dust of the moon to provide a 'sunshade' for the earth to limit atmospheric heating.
John Lane
