Have your say on new federal nature laws

Examples of survey questions and possible responses

Q: Which option best describes your overall level of support for Australia's new Nature Positive laws as described in the webinar?

Choose the answer that resonates with you. If you don't yet know a lot about the proposed laws you can simply choose 'neutral'.

Q: Please select which topic area you are commenting on

Select as many (or as few) of the topics listed on the government's website. By selecting a topic, a box will appear for you to write your thoughts on the topic.

Topic talking points

Below are talking points for some of the topics listed, to help with your survey response.

Click on the headings to show and hide more information about the topics:

Climate change

• New laws must protect nature by rejecting projects that cause climate harm, increasing protections for ecosystems that absorb carbon, and ensuring that the laws are capable of responding to climate change impacts.
• Climate change, fuelled by coal and gas projects approved under the current Act, is a key threat to Australia's wildlife and places. A project's total climate impacts, including emissions caused by Australian gas and coal being burnt overseas (scope 3 emissions) needs to be taken into account when proposals are assessed.

Conservation planning

• Proposed new Recovery Strategies must set out a clear and accountable plan for saving threatened species and ecological communities.
• Recovery strategies must identify important habitat and this should be protected.

Community engagement

• New laws must include provisions for the public to be provided with timely access to information, support meaningful participation in decision making, and ensure communities' right to challenge decisions and enforce the law.
• The reforms must support public trust and confidence that the new laws will protect nature, and that communities who care about nature can have their voices heard.

Environment Information Australia

• The new assessment system must provide clear opportunities for community engagement and participation.
• Offsets should be a genuine last resort. Payments as an alternative to like-for-like offsets should not be allowed.

Environment Protection Australia

• Nature needs a truly independent and well-funded environmental regulator. It should have broad powers to undertake assessments, make decisions free from political interference, ensure the environmental standards are enforced, and crack down on breaches of the law.
• The EPA's role must not be undermined by giving the Environment Minister "call in" powers to take over a project's assessment from the EPA, and apply a lower standard of environmental protection.

National Environmental Standards

• Strong and enforceable standards must be the foundation of the reforms of our national environment laws, so that the focus is on real outcomes for the protection of nature, not just process.
• The new laws including legally binding National Environmental Standards must halt nature destruction and help threatened species recover. Clear "red-lines" to prevent unacceptable impact on threatened species and other protected matters are essential.
• Regional planning needs to account for cumulative impacts from a range of land use pressures and take into account a whole of landscape approach to ensure that there are no new extinctions.
• All industries must be held accountable to meeting the standards, including removing the exemption for native forest logging under Regional Forest Agreements.

Other

• Australia's national environmental laws are broken and need fundamental reform. Nationwide, species are losing habitat at unprecedented rates. The development of these reforms needs to be given urgent priority.