3.1.

5: The impact of
increasing environmental
awareness in Australia on the
policies of political parties.
Key skill… evaluate the foundation and role of environmental and
political movements in changing relationships with outdoor
environments
  Environmental movements becoming political movements
 Environmentally focussed political party formations and their
What will we policies

explore?  The influence of environmental awareness on policies of

non-’green’ parties (Tasmania, Victoria and Australia)
 All from an historical perspective – generally 1970-1990
  “Green”
 Tending to refer to any idea, philosophy, political party or policy that
has an environmental interests at it’s core.
Key terms  Policies
 The positons that political parties take on particular issues
(environmental ones in our case)
 Formal plans of management
  Australian politicians and governments are elected by Australian
people on their ideals and political promises
 Environmental movements of the 1970’s raised the environmental
Introduction awareness of all Australians, leading to these becoming political
movements as members who had green and social policies gained
the support of the public.
 The United Tasmania Group
 In Tasmania, the first environmentally focussed (“green”) political
party in the world had its roots in the failures of Lake Pedder with the
Increased formation of the United Tasmania Group (UTG) in 1972

environmental  They contested unsuccessfully in state elections in the years following

with policies challenging the idea that further industrialisation was
awareness' the way forward for Tasmania
 Instead they promoted an ecological platform that 'was as much
effect on concerned with society and the need for satisfying employment as it
Tasmanian was with a wholesome and stimulating environment'.

politics (1970’s-
1980’s)

http://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/G/Green%20Politics.htm
 Dr Bob Brown
Increased (where have we heard this name before?)

environmental  He was a part of the UTG; however, focussed his

time on the Tasmanian Wilderness Society during
awareness' the Franklin River conflict

effect on  After his success with TWS’s campaign he ran and

was elected to Tasmanian parliament as a voice of
Tasmanian environmental awareness in 1983.

politics (1970’s-  He was joined in the late 1980’s by 3 other like-

minded independents, holding the balance of power
1980’s) in a minority Labor government, forming the ‘Labor
Green Accord’
Increased
environmental
awareness'
effect on Dr Bob Brown and the ‘green’ independents
 Within the Labor Green Accord, the independents successfully saw policy
Tasmanian change including:
 successfully doubling the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area in size,
politics (1970’s- a temporary banning of logging in National Estate areas not already
approved
1980’s)  Introducing a limit on the state's woodchip export quota
 ending the attempts to build a pulp mill at Wesley Vale, and closure of a chip
mill
 freedom of information legislation implemented
 The Tasmanian Greens party formed in 1992 after Labor broke this accord
http://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/G/Green%20Politics.htm
 Bob Hawke – Australian Prime Minister (1983
– 1991)
Having been elected as Prime minister in the
midst of the Franklin conflict, Bob Hawke’s
Labor government recognised the need to
National policy support conservational actions in Australia.
changes due to Increasing environmental awareness during this
period led to the following policy changes:
increased  Phase out of ozone depleting
environmental chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
awareness  Set up of the national Landcare program
 Improved efforts to conserve endangered
flora and fauna
 Committed to planting 1 billion trees to
combat soil erosion issues
Task: Evaluate the influence political movements of
the 1970s/80’s of human relationships at an
The link environment you have visited or studied.
 Building of the SGCS
 Declaration of the marine park 2005
 Classification of climate emergency 2019?
 The effects of the environmental movements of the 1970s-1980s
such as The Wilderness Society which developed out of the
Franklin river and Lake Pedder can be seen in examples such as …..
There is strong links between the declaration of a climate
emergency and the actions of The Wilderness Society.
 Overall there is a large influence on the relationships within the
Inverloch area.