Protecting our Environment

Climate change is causing rising ocean and air temperatures, which has created conditions for the crippling drought and toxic algae bloom outbreak that we’ve seen in waterways and beaches across the state. 

While government funding and support to date is welcome, the Greens are calling for action on the climate crisis that is creating the conditions for the algae bloom. 

We will introduce dedicated research, monitoring and environmental remediation to better understand the scale and cause of the crisis to prepare for the next one. This will go alongside a better public information campaign and warning system, as the community was caught off guard and poorly informed of the public health implications. Adequate compensation must also be provided to support workers and communities that have and will continue to be impacted by the toxic algae bloom. 

Adequate funding of emergency services that cover all environmental disasters, including water pollution, disasters is essential. The Greens will ensure the state government commits $50 million yearly to protect our marine ecosystems, totalling $200 million over four years.

In addition, we will be allocating $4 million per year to rehabilitate marine wildlife after the bloom has dissipated (see our Animal Justice policy).

The state of our environment has declined for decades, with species and ecosystems increasingly threatened¹. The 2023 state of the environment report produced by the South Australian Environment Protection Authority, painted a grim picture about the pressures on habitat and biodiversity. Native vegetation continues to decline, and habitat loss and degradation are the most dominant cause of species loss, with native flora declining by 41%, and fauna by 44% over five years. The need for nature restoration couldn’t be more urgent. 

The state government’s grant program for nature restoration has allocated just over $10 million in the last year to improve 19,559 hectares of native vegetation².  Instead of providing subsidies to fossil fuel companies, the Greens will double the funding for nature restoration, regardless of what is sitting in the native vegetation fund.

 ^{1. Source: Environmental Protection Authority - https://soe.epa.sa.gov.au/files/documents/SOER-Summary-Report.pdf}

 ^{2. Source: Department of Environment and Water - https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/topics/native-vegetation/protecting-native-vegetation/funding-and-support/nature-restoration-grants-2024-2026}

In 2025, the Greens worked with the government to pass stronger laws to protect and improve biodiversity in our state, but it isn’t enough. Developers see native vegetation removal penalties as simply ‘the cost of doing business’ while we still see significant trees being removed despite community opposition.

There is more to do to make sure we are valuing our native vegetation and significant trees. 

The Greens will strengthen laws pertaining to tree canopy, which includes updating a significant tree register and amend the Native Vegetation Regulations (NVR) that allow for the removal of any tree within 10 metres of a dwelling – including sheds and carports³. We will protect trees by requiring permission and approval before removing a tree close to a dwelling.

We will also increase penalties for removal of native vegetation to act as a deterrent.

^{3. Source – Conservation Council SA - https://assets.nationbuilder.com/conservationsa/pages/24059/attachments/original/1722819363/A_Call_to_Action_-_April_2021__compressed.pdf?1722819363}

About 17 per cent of metropolitan Adelaide is covered in tree canopy, well below the South Australian Government’s own 30 per cent target. To address urban heating and heat islands which Adelaide is highly susceptible to, we need to ramp up tree canopy cover, green spaces and permeable surfaces rather than paying more concrete and tarmac. 

Impermeable surfaces, like roads, buildings and other hard surfaces, cover 29 per cent of metropolitan Adelaide. Not only does this increase flooding, but it traps and radiates heat during hot weather. 

We know that green space is a contributor to positive wellbeing outcomes as it reduces stress, obesity, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.⁴ 

The Greens will establish an ambitious green space strategy to increase the number of greens spaces in local communities across the state. 

^{4. Source: Health and Place - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1353829214001518}

The Adelaide Park Lands are an iconic and cherished part of our state. They should be for all South Australians to enjoy. But they continue to shrink. Each successive generation loses a little bit more, and we need action now to ensure that this unique part of SA is not lost. 

We cannot wait any longer to protect our cultural, historic and environmental heritage. Last October our bill to add the Adelaide Park Lands to the State Heritage List successfully passed the Upper House, however, it needs to be passed in the Lower House. We will continue to pursue this important protection for our park lands.

South Australia is home to many important ecosystems and locations that are unique and have significant environmental impact. From the Coorong to the Mount Lofty Ranges, the Great Australian Bight to the St Kilda Mangroves, the Flinders Ranges to Kangaroo Island, we have places that are loved and cherished by our communities and are a wonder for visitors to our state. 

We need to make sure there are protections in place, so our precious places are not lost in the future. 

Over the last decade, there has been a bid for the Adelaide Park Lands and the Mount Lofty Ranges to be listed under the UNESCO World Heritage protection. The Greens will continue to support that bid but will also move to protect more places under state legislation where they hold environmental and First Nations significance. 

We can eliminate waste through a circular economy. The Greens have introduced legislation to require companies are responsible for the waste they produce, and to improve consumer information about the waste their products generate when they buy them⁵. 

In South Australia, we generate 5.16 million tonnes of waste each year⁶. Rather than the corporations being responsible for their waste, everyday South Australians are forced to pay for managing the waste through their rates and taxes. While most waste in South Australia is recycled, the amount of waste being sent to landfill increased each year since 2020, and we are not on track to meet the state’s target of zero waste to landfill by 2030⁷. Even though South Australia has led the way in banning plastic shopping bags and takeaway containers, plastics are still the biggest waste going to landfill in South Australia each year with 180,000 tonnes per year⁸.

The Greens believe that the people who make the waste need to be stewards of it to the end of its lifecycle. By introducing a levy on plastic waste (including soft plastics), paid for by the corporations who include it in their products, we’ll be able to push manufacturers to find alternatives, or carry the cost of dealing with the waste.

^{5. Source: Robert Simms MLC - https://www.robertsimms.org.au/targeting_waste}

^{6. Source: Green Industries - https://www.greenindustries.sa.gov.au/sarecycling}

^{7. Source; Green Industries - https://www.greenindustries.sa.gov.au/resources/circular-economy-resource-recovery-report-2022-23}

^8. Ibid

Our environment is priceless, so we’ll invest to protect it. 

The SA Greens have a plan to:

• Scrap fossil fuel subsidies.
• Make mining companies pay their fair share in royalties.
• Introduce a South Australian big bank levy.
• Phase out stamp duty and introduce a broad-based land tax.
• Cut wasteful government spending on advertising for itself.

By raising taxes on big corporations, our revenue measures will fund the resources to protect our stunning natural environment.