Environmental Movement in Australia
Encyclopedia
Conservation movement
The conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental and a social movement that seeks to protect natural resources including animal, fungus and plant species as well as their habitat for the future....
, the environmental movement in Australia was the first in the world to become a political movement and Australia was home to the world's first Green Party.
The environmental movement is represented by a wide range of organizations sometimes called non-governmental organizations. These organizations exist on local, national, and international scales. Environmental NGOs vary widely in political views and in the amount they seek to influence the Environmental Policy of Australia and other governments. The environmental movement today consists of both large national groups and also many smaller local groups with local concerns. There are also 5,000 Landcare groups in the six states and two mainland territories.
In Australia, the movement has seen a growth in popularity through prominent Australian environmentalist
Environmentalist
An environmentalist broadly supports the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities"...
s such as Bob Brown
Bob Brown
Robert James Brown is an Australian senator, the inaugural Parliamentary Leader of the Australian Greens and was the first openly gay member of the Parliament of Australia...
, Peter Garrett
Peter Garrett
Peter Robert Garrett, AM, MP , is an Australian musician, environmentalist, activist and politician.Garrett was lead singer of the Australian rock band Midnight Oil from 1973 until its disbanding in 2002...
, Steve Irwin
Steve Irwin
Stephen Robert "Steve" Irwin , nicknamed "The Crocodile Hunter", was an Australian television personality, wildlife expert, and conservationist. Irwin achieved worldwide fame from the television series The Crocodile Hunter, an internationally broadcast wildlife documentary series which he co-hosted...
, Tim Flannery
Tim Flannery
Timothy Fridtjof Flannery is an Australian mammalogist, palaeontologist, environmentalist and global warming activist....
and David Fleay
David Fleay
David Howells Fleay was an Australian naturalist who pioneered the captive breeding of endangered species, and was the first person to breed the platypus in captivity....
.
Scope of the movement
At a political level, the most influential organisation is the Australian GreensAustralian Greens
The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, is an Australian green political party.The party was formed in 1992; however, its origins can be traced to the early environmental movement in Australia and the formation of the United Tasmania Group , the first Green party in the world, which...
. In recent years the Greens have at times held the balance of power in the Australian Senate
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
.
The strongest areas of focus are Landcare
Landcare
Landcare may refer to:*Landcare , a group formed to seek land protection*Landcare Australia, an umbrella organisation seeking land protection in Australia*Landcare Research New Zealand Limited*Landcare...
, conservation in Australia
Conservation in Australia
Conservation in Australia is an issue of state and federal policy. Australia is one of the most biologically diverse countries in the world, with a large portion of species endemic to Australia...
, and also clean energy and the Australian anti-nuclear movement
Anti-nuclear movement in Australia
Nuclear testing, uranium mining and export, and nuclear energy have often been the subject of public debate in Australia, and the anti-nuclear movement in Australia has a long history...
.
The largest and most influential and active environmental organizations in Australia are Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
, the Australian Conservation Foundation
Australian Conservation Foundation
The Australian Conservation Foundation is an Australian non-profit, community-based environmental organisation focused on advocacy, policy research and community outreach.-History:...
and The Wilderness Society (Australia)
The Wilderness Society (Australia)
The Wilderness Society is an Australian, community-based, not-for-profit non-governmental environmental advocacy organisation. Its purpose is to protect, promote and restore wilderness and natural processes across Australia for the survival and ongoing evolution of life on Earth.It is a...
.
There are also a large number of smaller conservation and advocacy groups.
Many groups are involved in active acquisition for conservation as non-profit trusts or covenants to protect of environmentally sensitive land against inappropriate use. The largest of which, in terms of total land area, is Bush Heritage Australia
Bush Heritage Australia
Bush Heritage Australia is a non-profit organisation based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia that operates throughout Australia. It was previously known as the Australian Bush Heritage Fund, which is still its legal name. It purchases land, assessed as being of outstanding conservation value, from...
.
History
The first European Settlers of Australia had little regard for the environment of the continent and the early focus was to use the abundant resources and convert the environment into a less hostile and European setting to make settlers feel more at home.The first signs of the environmental movement in Australia began with the growing naturalism movement at the turn of the 19th Century.
Early Field Naturalists
The first naturalists arrived in Australia very early. Joseph BanksJoseph Banks
Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS was an English naturalist, botanist and patron of the natural sciences. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage . Banks is credited with the introduction to the Western world of eucalyptus, acacia, mimosa and the genus named after him,...
, a botanist and naturalist was a member of First voyage of James Cook
First voyage of James Cook
The first voyage of James Cook was a combined Royal Navy and Royal Society expedition to the south Pacific ocean aboard HMS Endeavour, from 1768 to 1771...
and the First Fleet
First Fleet
The First Fleet is the name given to the eleven ships which sailed from Great Britain on 13 May 1787 with about 1,487 people, including 778 convicts , to establish the first European colony in Australia, in the region which Captain Cook had named New South Wales. The fleet was led by Captain ...
.
Despite some significant discoveries by botanists such as Joseph Maiden
Joseph Maiden
Joseph Henry Maiden was a botanist who made a major contribution to knowledge of the Australian flora, especially the Eucalyptus genus. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation Maiden when citing a botanical name.Joseph Maiden was born in St John's Wood, London...
it wasn't for many decades and with the rapid deterioration of native habitat and growing understanding of the native environment that the first organised clubs began to form. The Field Naturalists Club of Victoria
Field Naturalists Club of Victoria
The Field Naturalists Club of Victoria is an Australian natural history and conservation organisation.It was founded in May 1880 by a group of nature enthusiasts that included Thomas Pennington Lucas. Charles French and Dudley Best. It is the oldest conservation group in Victoria...
was formed in 1880, followed shortly after by the New South Wales Naturalists Club and a similar organisation was established in Tasmania in 1904.
Despite the existence of a strong Victorian era zoological movement
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
, there was little emphasis on conservation or management of the environment and in the early days these naturalists were primarily concerned with cataloguing and academia.
The first National Parks
The idea of land conservation began 1879, when the Royal National ParkRoyal National Park
Royal National Park is a national park in New South Wales, Australia, 29 km south of Sydney CBD.Founded by Sir John Robertson, Acting Premier of New South Wales, and formally proclaimed on 26 April 1879, it is the world's second oldest purposed national park, the first usage of the term...
in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
was proclaimed . Previously it had been a recreational area, however it followed the lead of Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho...
in the United States as a conservation park.
As the conservation movement grew, so too did the number of national parks.
Response to Endangered Species
Thylacine
The thylacine or ,also ;binomial name: Thylacinus cynocephalus, Greek for "dog-headed pouched one") was the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times. It is commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger or the Tasmanian wolf...
, a species being hunted to extinction in Tasmania. Members of that group went on to establish Healesville Sanctuary
Healesville Sanctuary
Healesville Sanctuary, or the Sir Colin MacKenzie Fauna Park, is a zoo specializing in native Australian animals. It is located at Healesville in rural Victoria, Australia, and has a history of breeding native animals. It is one of only two places to have successfully bred a platypus, the other...
.
The environmental movement became mainstream with public outcry following extensive culling of koala
Koala
The koala is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia, and the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae....
s. Between 1915 and 1927, nearly 4 million koalas were killed the largest cullings occuring in Queensland. By 1924 koalas had officially become extinct in South Australia and endangered elsewhere. In response to the threat of extinction, Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary
Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary
Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary is located in the Brisbane suburb of Fig Tree Pocket in Queensland, Australia.Founded in 1927, it is the world's oldest and largest Koala Sanctuary.-History:...
was opened.
Native fauna advisory committees began to be established to address the concern of rapidly dwindling populations of a number of mammal species. In 1928, the Tasmanian Advisory Committee for Native Fauna had recommended a reserve to protect any remaining Thylacines, with potential sites of suitable habitat including the Arthur
Arthur River, Tasmania
Arthur River is the name of both a river and a small township on the northern part of the West Coast of Tasmania, Australia. At the 2006 census, Arthur River and the surrounding area had a population of 121.It is south of the town of Marrawah...
-Pieman area of western Tasmania. This was also the beginning of a Tasmanian wilderness movement.
While the movement was too little to late to save the thylacine from extinction with the last thylacine dying in captivity in 1936, other species were saved with official protection orders. The koala was declared a protected species in all states in 1937. The Tasmanian Devil
Tasmanian Devil
The Tasmanian devil is a carnivorous marsupial of the family Dasyuridae, now found in the wild only on the Australian island state of Tasmania. The size of a small dog, it became the largest carnivorous marsupial in the world following the extinction of the thylacine in 1936...
, another iconic species hunted to the brink of extinction was protected in 1941.
The Landcare movement
While threats to iconic species stimulated the public to act the conservation movement took some time to grow. Vast areas of Australia were set aside as crown landCrown land
In Commonwealth realms, Crown land is an area belonging to the monarch , the equivalent of an entailed estate that passed with the monarchy and could not be alienated from it....
, however these were seen as areas of potential development and land use
Land use
Land use is the human use of land. Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as fields, pastures, and settlements. It has also been defined as "the arrangements, activities and inputs people undertake in a certain land cover...
rather than for conservation.
The landcare movement in Australia was begun by farmers has its root in the 1960s to combat the growing problem of soil erosion and soil salinity which was having an increasing impact in Australia. Groups of volunteers were formed for projects which promoted revegetation and better resource management. Many of these projects were funded by community groups such as the Returned Services Leagues and Rotary International
Rotary International
Rotary International is an organization of service clubs known as Rotary Clubs located all over the world. The stated purpose of the organization is to bring together business and professional leaders to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help...
. Having started locally, the landcare movement gained a national voice in the late 1980s with the foundation of Landcare (organisation)
Landcare (organisation)
Landcare began in Victoria, Australia in 1986 with a group of farmers near St Arnaud in central Victoria forming the first Landcare group. Since then, the Landcare concept has developed into a movement, across Australia and now around the world...
and later Landcare Australia. Despite increasing awareness of greater environmental issues, however a growing conflict was occurring between conservationists and farmers.
The anti-litter movement
The anti-litter movement also had its roots in the 1960s due to the growing problem in Australia of litterLitter
Litter consists of waste products such as containers, papers, wrappers or faeces which have been disposed of without consent. Litter can also be used as a verb...
as a form of visual pollution
Visual pollution
Visual pollution is the term given to unattractive and man-made visual elements of a vista, a landscape, or any other thing that a person does not feel comfortable to look at. Visual pollution is an aesthetic issue, referring to the impacts of pollution that impair one's ability to enjoy a vista or...
. Keep Australia Beautiful
Keep Australia Beautiful
Keep Australia Beautiful is a not-for-profit Australian environmental conservation organisation. The Keep Australia Beautiful Council is the federation of independent organisations formed in each of Australian states and territories - the first of which, Keep Australia Beautiful was formed in...
was founded in 1969 and became popular in the 1980s with its "Do the right thing" campaign against littering and its Tidy Towns competition became well known in Australia due to it being a very competitive expression of civic pride.
The rise of the green movement
The first rumblings of the Australian green movement as a political force came with protests over the Lake PedderLake Pedder
Lake Pedder was once a natural lake, located in the southwest of Tasmania, Australia but the name is now used in an official sense to refer to the much larger artificial impoundment and diversion lake formed when the original lake was expanded by damming in 1972 by the Hydro Electric Commission of...
damming project in 1972. The project caused worldwide publicity and brought the environmental movement to the mainstream in Australia. The movement escalated with the Franklin Dam
Franklin Dam
The Franklin Dam or Gordon-below-Franklin Dam project was a proposed dam on the Gordon River in Tasmania, Australia, that was never constructed. The movement that eventually led to the project's cancellation became one of most significant environmental campaigns in Australian history.The dam was...
project and Bob Brown was made a martyr for the cause when he was jailed for environmental activism.
The protests included the United Tasmania Group
United Tasmania Group
The United Tasmania Group is generally acknowledged as the world's first Green party. The party was formed on 23 March 1972, during a meeting of the Lake Pedder Action Group at the Hobart town hall in order to field political candidates in the April 1972 state election. They received 3.9% of the...
who were the precursor to the Tasmanian Greens and are now recognised as the world's first green party. The group that preceded the Tasmanian Wilderness Society - the South West Tasmania Action Committee continued after the flooding.
Anti-nuclear movement
Nuclear testingNuclear testing
Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the effectiveness, yield and explosive capability of nuclear weapons. Throughout the twentieth century, most nations that have developed nuclear weapons have tested them...
, uranium mining
Uranium mining
Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the ground. The worldwide production of uranium in 2009 amounted to 50,572 tonnes, of which 27% was mined in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia are the top three producers and together account for 63% of world uranium...
and export, and nuclear energy have often been the subject of public debate in Australia, and the anti-nuclear movement has a long history. Its origins date back to the 1972–73 debate over French nuclear testing in the Pacific and the 1976–77 debate about uranium mining in Australia
Uranium mining in Australia
Radioactive ores were first extracted at Radium Hill in 1906, and Mount Painter in South Australia in the 1930s, to recover radium for medical use. Several hundred kilograms of uranium were also produced....
.
Several groups specifically concerned with nuclear issues were established in the mid-1970s, including the Movement Against Uranium Mining and Campaign Against Nuclear Energy
Campaign Against Nuclear Energy
The Campaign Against Nuclear Energy was established in Perth, Western Australia on 14 February 1976 by Friends of the Earth ; this included: Peter Brotherton, FOE coordinator WA and John Carlin, Mike Thomas and Barrie Machin after a meeting at University of WA...
(CANE), cooperating with other environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth and the Australian Conservation Foundation
Australian Conservation Foundation
The Australian Conservation Foundation is an Australian non-profit, community-based environmental organisation focused on advocacy, policy research and community outreach.-History:...
. But by the late 1980s, the price of uranium had fallen, and the costs of nuclear power
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
had risen, and the anti-nuclear movement seemed to have won its case. CANE disbanded itself in 1988.
About 2003, proponents of nuclear power advocated it as a solution to global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
and the Australian government began taking an interest. Anti-nuclear
Anti-nuclear
The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes the use of nuclear technologies. Many direct action groups, environmental groups, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, national, and international level...
campaigners and some scientists in Australia emphasised that nuclear power could not significantly substitute for other power sources, and that uranium mining
Uranium mining
Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the ground. The worldwide production of uranium in 2009 amounted to 50,572 tonnes, of which 27% was mined in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia are the top three producers and together account for 63% of world uranium...
itself could become a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions.
Indigenous land
An increasing consciousness in Indigenous Australian culture and the practices of sustainable landcare also contributed to an overall increase in popularity of the environmental movement and concern for indigenous species. Additionally the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976
In Australian history, the Aboriginal Land Rights Act established the basis upon which Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory could claim rights to land based on traditional occupation. The Act was strongly based on the recommendations of Justice Woodward, who chaired the Aboriginal Land...
which granted indigenous people ownership based on traditional occupation, which effectively locked away large tracts of land from over-development.
1980s - Major government action
The environmental movement reached a peak in Australia in the 1980s. Popular Australian culture began to embrace the environmental messages of rock bands like Midnight OilMidnight Oil
Midnight Oil , were an Australian rock band from Sydney originally performing as Farm from 1972 with drummer Rob Hirst, bass guitarist Andrew James and keyboard player/lead guitarist Jim Moginie...
.
The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior
Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior
The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, codenamed Opération Satanique, was an operation by the "action" branch of the French foreign intelligence services, the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure , carried out on July 10, 1985...
in New Zealand polarised the community on the green movement. Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
became a symbol to many of the entire movement and was seen at once by many in the community as both intrepid and radical. Nuclear testing
Nuclear testing
Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the effectiveness, yield and explosive capability of nuclear weapons. Throughout the twentieth century, most nations that have developed nuclear weapons have tested them...
and whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
in the Pacific region
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
had major impacts on the social consciousness of Australia.
The environmental movement also became a hot political issue. The Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
, in particular, began to capitalise on the popularity in its election campaigning with a national conservation and soil conservation strategy.
In July 1989, Bob Hawke
Bob Hawke
Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....
made a famous "Our Country, Our Future" speech that the Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
would plant a billion trees to combat soil erosion and declared the 1990s the "Decade of Landcare". This was a widely popular decision vindicated by the environmental movement.
In the same year, the government introduced the Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Act 1989, the focus of which was to eliminate the use of Chlorofluorocarbons. The widening hole in the ozone layer
Ozone layer
The ozone layer is a layer in Earth's atmosphere which contains relatively high concentrations of ozone . This layer absorbs 97–99% of the Sun's high frequency ultraviolet light, which is potentially damaging to the life forms on Earth...
was of high concern due to Australia's growing rate of skin cancer incidence.
However with the shift to the conservative Keating Government
Keating Government
The Hawke-Keating Government refers to the federal Executive Government of Australia of the Australian Labor Party from 1983 to 1996. The government was led initially by Bob Hawke as Prime Minister, who was succeeded by Paul Keating in 1991....
the economy became the dominant issue and government environmental policy was not a mainstream political issue for over a decade.
Climate Change
Growing concern in Australia about climate changeClimate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
reached its peak in 2006 largely in response to climate change campaigner Al Gore
Al Gore
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
's An Inconvenient Truth
An Inconvenient Truth
An Inconvenient Truth is a 2006 documentary film directed by Davis Guggenheim about former United States Vice President Al Gore's campaign to educate citizens about global warming via a comprehensive slide show that, by his own estimate, he has given more than a thousand times.Premiering at the...
and once again pushed environmental issues to the forefront. The Howard Government
Howard Government
The Howard Government refers to the federal Executive Government of Australia led by Prime Minister John Howard. It was made up of members of the Liberal–National Coalition, which won a majority of seats in the Australian House of Representatives at four successive elections. The Howard Government...
stirred the environmental movement by refusing to acknowledge the Kyoto Protocol and pushing a strongly pro-nuclear power
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
stance. In addition, Howard created controversy by refusing to meet with Al Gore during his visit to Australia. In contrast, opposition leader Kevin Rudd
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2010...
proclaimed climate change as "the greatest moral, economic and social challenge of our time" and called for a cut to greenhouse gas emissions by 60% before 2050. A Newspoll released prior to the Australian federal election, 2007 found that the environment was the fourth most important issue to voters behind Medicare
Medicare (Australia)
Medicare is Australia's publicly funded universal health care system, operated by the government authority Medicare Australia. Medicare is intended to provide affordable treatment by doctors and in public hospitals for all resident citizens and permanent residents except for those on Norfolk Island...
, education and the economy.
The Rudd Government
Rudd Government
The Rudd Government refers to the federal Executive Government of Australia of the Australian Labor Party from 2007 to 2010, led by Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister. The Rudd Government commenced on 3 December 2007, when Rudd was sworn in along with his ministry...
began on 3 December 2007, and as his first official act after being sworn in, Kevin Rudd signed the Kyoto Protocol
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , aimed at fighting global warming...
. Rudd stated that:
Australia's official declaration today that we will become a member of the Kyoto Protocol is a significant step forward in our country's efforts to fight climate change domestically - and with the international community.
However, the Rudd Government's environmental credentials suffered some negative perception from environmental groups when post-Kyoto cuts to emissions were subsequently scaled back and the fallout of the public embarrassing Energy Efficient Homes Package
Energy Efficient Homes Package
The Energy Efficient Homes Package was an Australian government program implemented by the Rudd Government and was administered by the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts...
scheme which included the much criticized insulation and Green Loans programs.
Criticism of government policy caused delays to the introduction of a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme
Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme
The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme was a proposed cap-and-trade system of emissions trading for anthropogenic greenhouse gases, due to be introduced in Australia in 2010 by the Rudd government, as part of its climate change policy. It marked a major change in the energy policy of Australia...
including an abandoned Emission trading scheme. It was finally replaced with the Gillard Government
Gillard Government
The Gillard Government refers to the federal Executive Government of Australia, which is led by the Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard. Julia Gillard became Prime Minister on the 24th of June 2010 after challenging her predecessor, Kevin Rudd for the position of leader of the parliamentary...
's passed Clean Energy Bill, 2011
Clean Energy Bill, 2011
The Clean Energy Bill 2011 is a package of legislation that will establish a proposed Australian emissions trading scheme designed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and limit global warming.-History:...
.
Criticisms of the environmental movement
Some key critics of the environmental movement in Australia include former prime minister John HowardJohn Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
and media personalities Andrew Bolt
Andrew Bolt
Andrew Bolt is an Australian newspaper columnist, radio commentator, blogger and television host. Bolt is a columnist and associate editor of the Melbourne-based Herald Sun. He has appeared on the Nine Network, Melbourne Talk Radio, ABC Television, Network Ten and local radio...
and Christian Kerr
Christian Kerr
Christian Kerr, an Australian political commentator who wrote for the email news service Crikey before joining The Australian in 2008.Prior to becoming a writer Kerr was a staffer to South Australian Liberal Senators Robert Hill, Amanda Vanstone and former South Australian Premier John Olsen.In...
.