Antinuclear

Eight leading non-profit environmental organisations gathered in Sydney on Wednesday to oppose the federal government’s plan to abolish section 487 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.

The move, which may struggle to win sufficient votes to get through the Senate, would limit legal challenges to major projects to those parties directly affected……….

Wilderness Society convener James Johnson said the EPBC ACT had been set up by the Howard government in 1999 after the Australian Law Reform Commission found individuals should not require a special test to begin proceedings on environmental matters.

“Those are the areas and issues deserving the highest levels of protection,” Mr Johnson said. “It’s wrong to represent to the Australian people that we have laws to protect matters of national environmental significance on the one hand, and to take away the very right to ensure those laws are followed with the other.”

Paul Oosting, acting national director of GetUp!, said the move was an action of a “desperate government”.

“They’ve had a controversial few weeks and now they’ve launched this attack on Australia’s key environmental laws, putting in jeopardy our precious places like the Great Barrier Reef, to distract from a government that’s not performing well,” he said.: http://www.theage.com.au/environment/great-barrier-reef-and-other-icons-at-risk-from-proposed-law-change-green-groups-20150819-gj2h49.html#ixzz3jJGos0sl