Australia's record of protecting our plants and animals at both a national and state level is poor, with another 134 species added to the threatened list in the past seven years.

An alliance of environmental groups have dubbed it a "global embarrassment", as The Sun-Herald reported on Sunday.

Does NSW want to go the way of Queensland, where land-clearing rates have soared in recent years after the Campbell Newman government removed most controls? Credit:The Wilderness Society

In NSW, the problems are likely to worsen, not least because of the inaptly named Biodiversity Conservation Act passed by the Berejiklian government last year.

As the Herald reported late last year, legal action by environmentalists has begun in a bid to overturn new land-clearing codes that make it easier for farmers to strip land of native vegetation.