Under the cloak of Covid, the government is rushing ill-considered changes to Australia's environment laws | Geoff Cousins

It seems our leaders don't want tricky environmental matters elevated to them, so they plan to flick responsibility to the statesWhat a cruel irony it is that just when our prime minister is bemoaning the fact that state governments can adversely affect the economy by closing their borders, his government seeks to pass the health and welfare of our environment and natural world into the hands of these very same states.Despite the dramatic and tragic impacts of the last bushfire season on the Australian community, both physically and economically, and the just released interim report of the royal commission into them, the government seeks to rush ahead with ill-considered changes to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act. This report is peppered with references to the need for national initiatives. It raises the prospect of the national cabinet managing future natural disasters, calls for the immediate rollout of a national emergency warning system and highlights the need for a national app for all such disasters. Continue reading...