Hello Koala Lovers,
Happy New Year and let us make 2024 the best ever for Koalas.
As I foreshadowed last year, we have exciting ideas for the Koala and the Koala Army this year but all I can say right now is keep Sunday 1st September in your diary as a special day. We will have more information in a few weeks.
Prior to Christmas, our team had three days of strategic planning and one of the key things that came out is that saying the same old things, time and time again is just not working.
So, what will work?
I am pretty sure that most people do not really know how bad it is in the bush and how much destruction happens on a daily basis.
So, part of our strategy this year is to really tell the truth about what we have seen and how the system is really letting the Koala and the environment down.
You would be surprised to know:
- That most industry bodies do not have anywhere near enough scrutiny on their projects. Whilst they make out it is an onerous job to get approvals (green tape in their minds), by and large it is pretty smooth sailing for them and rough and choppy waters for us, the community who want them brought to account.
- That any development is given a Permit to Take, which by and large means, you can kill things with no penalty.
- That animals, insects, reptiles not on the list of endangered or vulnerable species get absolutely no attention at all when development applications are approved. They are just seen as collateral damage.
The Koala Protection Act would:
- Place enormous scrutiny on any development application, which is why it is so feared.
- Have no Permit to Take – there would be zero tolerance for killing anything.
- Give landscapes greater protection allowing all creatures great and small to survive
As you know, I have always felt the Koala could be the flagship species and I am so disappointed that my environmental colleagues still have faith in a system that just does not work. How they can still have faith is beyond me.
The AKF got close in 2014, when then Senator Bob Brown launched the Koala Protection Bill with me in Parliament House and that has now been lost to time.
Because of an election in 2016, the concept of a “single species legislation” lost favour and again, my environmental colleagues, either naively or with wishful thinking thought that backing one side of politics was the way to go. It did not work, and I am hoping they have learnt that the environment is off limits to politics. It should be about biodiversity protection, not gaining political favour.
The Koala forests of Australia will, when they are protected by the Koala Protection Act, protect thousands of other creatures great and small.
Bring that on.
Deborah