Foxes in charge of chook house

Wednesday, 11 October 2006
Radical anti-environment bill for Senate inquiry

The Howard government's radical overhaul of its own Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act must be put to wide public scrutiny in a Senate inquiry, say the Greens.

Greens Leader Bob Brown said the bill to downgrade protection of Australia's environment will be introduced by Environment Minister Ian Campbell this week. It is an anti-environment bill.

"This is a bill to put the industry fox in charge of the environment chook house," Senator Brown said.

"It allows the minister, under the thumb of the resource extraction lobby in particular, to veto the input of Australian citizens in protecting the nation's heritage."

"It will excuse the inexcusable. For example, Campbell's impending decision to allow Woodside to destroy more of the world's greatest rock art site on Western Australia's Burrup peninsula in coming months. This will be a real test for Labor," Senator Brown said.