IN 1996, WHILE campaigning as Opposition Leader hoping for election, John Howard promised a one billion dollar fund to help the environment. He won that election and, true to his word, established the Natural Heritage Trust and set about putting those dollars to work.
In 2007, Kevin Rudd swept Howard aside with promises of faster action on climate change and an immediate ratification of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
Not three years later, Julia Gillard was moved to topple Rudd as party leader in part because his approval ratings had plummeted following his fluffing of the climate change policy solution. She was victorious that same year while promising the emissions trading scheme that Rudd had failed to deliver, defeating Tony Abbott and his ‘direct action’ plan on carbon abatement.
Every Prime Minister for the last 17 years has made it to the top job with a little bit of environmental promise; a little bit of green flair, a nod to our collective love of our wide brown land.
But don’t expect to see any of that in 2013. This will be the election that forgot the environment.
Read more: http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2013/08/16/3826412.htm
“ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT isn’t rocket science, it’s a lot more complex.” So said Nick Dexter natural resource manager at Booderee National Park on Radio National’s Off Track program more than two years ago.
Sara Phillips 