Senator Larissa Waters Senator for Queensland Media release Tuesday, 5 November, 2013

Abbott slashes NSW national environment protection

The Abbott and OFarrell governments one-stop-shop agreement, signed today, would effectively gut national environment protection in New South Wales, say the Australian Greens. New South Wales most precious natural places and wildlife are next up for sale in Tony Abbotts planned one-stop shop for big business run by environmentally negligent state premiers, Senator Larissa Waters, Australian Greens environment spokesperson, said. After already signing up Queensland, Tony Abbott is laying the groundwork to hand federal environmental approval powers to New South Wales, giving his conservative state cronies open slather over our nationally significant environmental assets. "If states had these powers in the past, the Franklin River would be dammed, cattle would be grazing in the Alpine National Park and the Great Barrier Reef would be littered with oil rigs. At a time when many of our most iconic species are on the brink of extinction, our environment laws need strengthening not slashing. "The duplication argument that Mr Abbott and his big business buddies are pushing is a complete furphy. "In all states and territories, governments have already established streamlined environmental assessment processes where one set of environmental assessment documents counts for both the state and federal levels. "It's the federal decision point that Mr Abbott is working with big business, mining magnates and state governments to get rid of so they don't have to face federal scrutiny. "Ironically, the whole idea would actually be bad for business as well as the environment. "Tony Abbott is set to move on to other states and territories to leave a patchwork of varying environmental standards across the country without federal power to enforce them, which will create confusion and uncertainty for business.

"The Greens will stand firm in Parliament against Tony Abbotts plans to sell out our most precious places and species in his environmentally disastrous one-stop shop for big business. "We call on Labor to uphold their election promise and Bob Hawke's legacy of federal environment protection and stand with the Greens in the Senate to block Tony Abbott's plan," Senator Waters said. Contact Monique Vandeleur 0419 626 275