The Morrison Government\u2019s new Agriculture Biodiversity Stewardship Market Bill looks set to fail Australia\u2019s environment despite promises to help ecosystem restoration, the Australian Greens have said today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Greens will refer the bill to a Senate inquiry for review and have called on the Labor Party to back an inquiry, before voting on the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Greens spokesperson for the environment, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere are major flaws in the Morrison Joyce Government\u2019s legislation that need to be reviewed and amended before the bill can pass the Senate. Setting our environment up to fail through the establishment of another inefficient offsets scheme without proper oversight is simply not acceptable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLabor needs to work with the Greens to protect the environment and not run cover for Barnaby Joyce and his National Party mates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Bill in its current form is too similar to Australia\u2019s carbon offset scheme, a scheme which has been revealed as severely lacking in integrity – little more than a wealth transfer with no additional emissions reductions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAn inquiry will ensure that the biodiversity offsets bill is instead built on evidence, integrity and transparency, and contains sufficient protections to deliver the environmental outcomes it promises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRestoration of our ecosystems is vital. Any offsets market must have longevity to ensure that the scheme is not just providing short-term revenue for farmers without long-term biodiversity restoration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Greens have major concerns with the large amount of discretion this bill gives the Minister for Agriculture to make long-term environmental decisions, without robust transparency or regulation. We already know what happens when Barnaby Joyce and the National Party give themselves unchecked power – the environment and our rivers suffer, and big, corporate agriculture get rich at the expense of everyone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhy is the scheme administered by the Agriculture Minister, when the objects of the Bill are relating to protecting biodiversity? With an inquiry, we can look into these issues and ensure the best governance decisions are made to ensure the objects of the Bill are met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA system built with integrity and good governance will support farmers to undertake permanent land restoration and invest in biodiversity\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Greens spokesperson for agriculture, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson<\/strong> said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe must support farmers wanting to do their bit for climate change – but parts of this Bill mimic the government\u2019s blotched carbon credit scheme and that will support nobody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFew industries are more impacted by climatic disruption to ecosystems and biodiversity than farming and farmers are an important part of the climate solution – we can\u2019t risk the goodwill of farmers by failing them now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s critical that this Bill is sent to a Senate inquiry for review. We have to get this right, our farmers’ futures depend on it.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Morrison Government\u2019s new Agriculture Biodiversity Stewardship Market Bill looks set to fail Australia\u2019s environment despite promises to help ecosystem restoration, the Australian Greens have said today. The Greens will refer the bill to a Senate inquiry for review and have called on the Labor Party to back an inquiry, before voting on the bill. … Continue reading “Greens to move for Senate inquiry into biodiversity offsets market and call on Labor to stand up to Barnaby Joyce”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15788"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15789,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15788\/revisions\/15789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}