2020-01-08
The Greens have called on the Prime Minister to establish a ‘Fighting Fund’ for the environment to restore and protect the flora and fauna decimated by the climate fires.
Greens Spokesperson for the Environment Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:
“We are facing half a billion animals lost from these fires right across the country and millions of hectares of habitat destroyed impacting survival and recovery of native species that are left.
“We need a fighting fund to restore the environment.
“The PM needs to commit proper funding to protect those animals that have survived and to restore their habitat. People are rightly asking, ‘where is the Environment Minister?’ The hundreds of volunteers fighting to save injured and homeless wildlife need to know what the Australian Government is going to do to help them.
“It is vital for the tourism of the affected regions whether it’s Kangaroo Island, the Adelaide Hills, the South Coast of NSW or East Gippsland and it would be a jobs creator to do it.
“People I spoke to on KI want to invest in rebuilding their Island but it’s not just about bricks and mortar, it’s also about the very thing people come to KI to see – the environment, the habitat of those animals and the pristine wilderness area.
“Once these fires are finally put out and people have started piecing their lives back together, we don’t want the PM’s focus to fall.
“These communities cannot keep bearing the brunt of the climate emergency. Australians want relief and a commitment to rebuild right now, but they also want political leaders to stand up and take action on climate change because we have to adapt, we have to mitigate and we have to be prepared to take those decisions that are going to not make climate change worse.
“The last thing we need is political leaders with their heads buried in the sand. This is the moment we need to use to take the necessary actions and we need to do it now.”