Environment before profits

September 10, 1997
Issue 

Environment before profits

"Australia has the opportunity to lead the world as a clean and green nation, an objective which is not only environmentally responsible but will produce major economic benefits and job opportunities for the nation."

No, these quotes are not taken from an environmental organisation's press release. They come from the Coalition's pre-election environment platform — a long list of motherhood statements and broken promises.

Most environmentalists never had any doubt about the Coalition's real intentions. Given the parties' wholehearted embrace of neo-liberal austerity, it was clear what was in store for the environment. There is a fundamental contradiction between preserving the environment for all and the short-term profits of a handful of corporations.

So it's no coincidence that, in just the last month, the government has given the go-ahead to the Jabiluka uranium mine, a second nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights and the destruction of Hinchinbrook. Nor is it coincidental that it is leading the charge of the renegades over greenhouse gas reduction targets and turning a blind eye to logging in ecologically sensitive areas.

Since taking government, the Coalition has: increased the exploitation of the Great Barrier Reef; allowed the McCall road in Tasmania's World Heritage area to stay open; increased the exploitation of sub-Antarctic fisheries; and opened the way for uranium mines to proliferate (Jabiluka in the NT, Kintyre in the Rundall River National Park in WA, Roxby Downs expansion in SA).

In its last budget, the government dramatically cut funds for environment programs, including the National Energy Efficiency Program, and it abolished the Energy Research and Development Corporation, so that by the year 2000 expenditure on renewable energy research will be virtually zero.

The $1 billion Natural Heritage Trust — evidence, the government maintained, of its commitment to the environment — has all but been dismantled. Recently, some $95 million of its budget was transferred to the Department of Primary Industries and Energy, further evidence of the government's real priorities.

Hill once stated in parliament, "We are all environmentalists now". But the fossil fuel, aluminium and uranium lobbies receive some 40% of all government subsidies.

The environment will be safe only in a real democracy, where the majority, not just corporate heads, determine how natural resources are used.

That's a fair way away, but in the meantime the powerful government-big business alliance must be checked by a public campaign that seeks to mobilise the majority. The campaign led by the Mirrar people to save Kakadu is exemplary in this regard. It deserves more support.

In the 1970s, mass movements saved the Franklin River and blocked for a time the attempt to expand uranium mining. With environmental destruction more widespread and public consciousness about preserving the environment higher, the potential to mobilise broad support is greater now than it was then.

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