Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has responded to a joint letter, signed by over 50 climate, environment, and nature organisations calling on her to reject new coal mines and expansions due to the devastating threats they pose to endangered koala habitat in NSW and QLD.
We're outraged by the response. The Minister has pretty much hand-balled all responsibility to the climate change Minister, Chris Bowen, and fails to acknowledge her own obligations to halt extinctions. Despite Australia’s broken national environment laws, which has largely facilitated expansion of the fossil fuel industry unabated, the Minister currently has powers under the act to reject coal mine proposals with ‘unacceptable’ impacts to the environment, including koalas.
A recent report published by the Central Queensland University shockingly found one third of the land covered by applications for new coal mining leases in QLD provides habitat for the endangered koala. The mining lease areas cover around 123,000 ha, of which 42,500 ha is classified as koala habitat.
According to the federal environment department, there are 37 proposed new coal mining projects in NSW and QLD awaiting federal government assessment. More than half of these coal projects would destroy koala habitat. State and federal government action statements for the koala say the two biggest threats to koalas are habitat destruction, and life-threatening climate change. Both of these threats will be addressed if Minister Plibersek rejects these koala-killing coal projects.
In her response to our letter, Minister Plibersek admits that the federal government is approving an average of three coal mines per year. This is out of step with the International Energy Agency’s analysis that there can be no new coal, oil or gas projects if the global energy sector is to reach net zero emissions by 2050 and avoid catastrophic climate change, and limit global temperatures to 1.5 degrees C (which some scientists argue this is well on track to be breached).
Minister Plibersek has made numerous public commitments for ‘zero extinctions’, and to take action to protect the koala. Yet in her response she made no mention of how she is considering, and addressing, the proposed destruction of thousands of hectares of koala habitat for new coal mines and expansions. It's just not good enough.