This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The Senate has launched an inquiry into Australia’s threatened species crisis after an investigation of national threatened species management by Guardian Australia revealed problems including poor monitoring and a lack of funding.

The inquiry, initiated by Greens senator Janet Rice and supported by Labor and crossbenchers on Wednesday, will examine issues including the country’s alarming rate of species decline, the adequacy of Commonwealth laws that are supposed to protect threatened wildlife, and the effectiveness of funding for threatened species.



Scientists have described the situation confronting Australia’s threatened species as a “national disgrace” and the systems and laws that are supposed to protect them as “broken”.

More than 1,800 plant and animal species and ecological communities (woodlands, forests and wetlands are examples of ecological communities) are at risk of extinction, a number that is increasing but is also likely to be an underestimate of how many are truly vulnerable.

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The parliamentary inquiry will look specifically at Australian fauna. Almost 500 birds, mammals, reptiles and other animals are listed as requiring protection under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

Australia has recorded the highest rate of mammalian extinction of any country over the past 200 years.

Senator Rice said Australia was facing an “animal extinction crisis” and the government was standing by while more species moved toward extinction.

“A staggering one in three global mammal extinctions in the last 400 years have occurred in Australia,” she said.

“It’s simply not good enough for a country as advanced and wealthy as ours to be leaving the next generation with a crisis like this.



“We urgently need this inquiry to identify the funding resources and legal protections that have to be in place to ensure that not one more animal species goes extinct in Australia.”

Scientists and conservationists have said the wildlife Australia prides itself on is struggling due to poor monitoring, lack of funding, cuts to environment department budgets, poor coordination between state and federal departments, failure to implement management plans for species and a lack of accountability mechanisms to ensure this work is done.



Guardian Australia’s investigation revealed multiple cases where money promoted by the government as threatened species funding has not gone to projects that benefited threatened species.

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Less than 40% of Australia’s nationally-listed threatened species have recovery plans in place to secure their long-term survival and close to 10% of listed threatened species are identified as requiring plans to manage their protection, but the documents are either unfinished or have not been developed.

Other critically endangered, endangered and vulnerable species have plans that are years or decades out of date and contain no detail on what actions have been taken to ensure a species avoids extinction.

In some cases volunteers are having to prop up threatened species work and crowdsource funds because governments are failing to provide support.

In April, it was revealed an Australian turtle that received global attention for its punk-like features has no national recovery plan in place to ensure its survival and its management is being carried out by volunteers.

In Tasmania, community groups on King Island have called for an urgent federal intervention to prevent two of Australia’s most endangered bird species from becoming extinct.

And there have been calls for an audit of Australia’s threatened species funding and its effectiveness after revelations the government brokered a deal for a German not-for-profit to fund a project for the critically endangered western ground parrot, one of the government’s priority species.

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The terms of reference for the inquiry include investigation of the ongoing decline of Australian animal species, the wider ecological impact of faunal extinctions, funding and implementation of recovery plans, the adequacy of existing monitoring processes for threatened species, the adequacy of Australia’s national reserve system, and the adequacy and effectiveness of protections for critical habitat.

In March, Guardian revealed Australia had not listed a critical habitat for protection on the federal register for more than a decade.

Conservation groups that have been calling for an overhaul of environment laws said the inquiry was a welcome intervention.

James Trezise, policy analyst for the Australian Conservation Foundation, said “we know that our national law has some serious issues when it comes to protecting threatened species and that funding for recovery is woefully inadequate and has been misrepresented by governments.

“This inquiry will hopefully enable the transparent evaluation of our environment laws as well as the funding arrangements and the independence of authorities that are charged with protecting Australia’s threatened species.”