2025-04-02
Following Labor and the Liberals teaming up to weaken Australia’s environment laws in the final week of Parliament, the Greens will highlight how they are the only party with a comprehensive plan to address the biodiversity crisis and protect and restore nature as they launch their plan to Green Australia on Wednesday.
Former Greens Leader Bob Brown will be joining Greens Leader Adam Bandt and Greens Environment spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young at Cleland Wildlife Park in South Australia for the launch.
The Greens’ plan will ensure that 1% of the Federal Budget goes towards Australia’s precious natural environment, in line with expert calls for a significant step up in investment to prevent further extinctions and help halt the decline in biodiversity.
In 2025/26 total expenditure in the Federal Budget is expected to be over $785 billion. The Greens’ plan would see government expenditure on the environment rise to $7.8 billion for 25/26 and provide an additional $17 billion in investment in nature over the forward estimates.
This would at least double current government expenditure on nature over the forward estimates, according to Parliamentary Library analysis.
The Greens say that decades of governments subsidising nature destruction, underfunding nature positive plans and Australia’s broken environment laws mean many of our iconic species are facing extinction and ecosystems being degraded.
Half of Australia’s GDP relies on our natural world, yet far more public money is spent subsidising its destruction than protection. While Australia is recognised globally for its unique biodiversity, we remain the global leader in mammal extinctions and a deforestation hotspot, with an MCG worth of bushland cleared every two minutes.
The Greens’ plan to Green Australia includes:
- Reforming environment laws to ensure real protection for nature, including:
- An end to native forest logging and closing deforestation loopholes
- A moratorium on clearing koala habitat
- A climate trigger to ensure mines and developments are properly assessed for their impacts
- $20 billion over the next decade for biodiversity restoration, including projects targeting threatened species recovery, monitoring and data collection, rehabilitation of waterways and invasive species management
- $5 billion investment over four years in a Protected Areas Fund to purchase land and work with states and territories to expand, protect and manage high biodiversity areas, such as World Heritage protection for the Great Australian Bight
- Establishing a Land and Sea Country Commissioner, an independent First Nations voice to guide the protection and management of Australia’s environment and its interlinked Indigenous cultural heritage values
- Implementing mandatory nature risk disclosure for businesses and governments to better understand environmental impact, improve future planning and better regulate environmental claims
- Legislating to make greenwashing illegal and stamp out misleading and ambiguous environmental claims. Protecting consumers and the public from corporate lies.
The Greens’ full plan for the environment can be viewed here.
The boosted environmental investment will be paid for through the Greens’ plan to make big corporations and billionaires pay their fair share in tax. The Greens’ Robin Hood Reforms are estimated to raise $514 billion in revenue over ten years.
Quotes attributable to Greens Leader Adam Bandt MP:
“Labor broke their promises to protect the environment and Peter Dutton doesn’t even pretend to care.
“Labor will break their promises again unless there are more Greens there to hold them to account and get them to act.
“We can’t keep voting for the same two parties and expecting a different result.
“In a minority Parliament, the Greens will keep Peter Dutton out and get Labor to act to protect and restore our precious natural environment.”
Quotes attributable to Greens Environment spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young:
“The last week of Parliament showed how Labor and the Liberals are happy to clear the way for corporations to trash the environment for their own profit.
“We’re in a biodiversity and climate crisis that requires urgent action, yet both Labor and Liberal see the environment as something to exploit rather than to protect and restore.
“Nature needs us. The forests need us and the koalas need us. This election is vital for saving our environment. It will be a referendum on protecting nature.
“Only the Greens are prepared to listen to experts and invest one per cent of the Federal Budget in environmental protection and restoration.
“Our plan to Green Australia will halt environmental degradation, prevent extinctions and make sure our precious natural environment sustains life now and for future generations.
“We will end native forest logging, protect species, like the iconic koala, and put in place environment laws that actually protect nature and the places we love, not corporate profits.
“This election, vote Greens to protect wildlife, nature and the planet.”