The Liberals will be forced to release the 2024 State of Environment Report ahead of the Budget Estimates process following a successful Greens’ motion in Parliament today.
The State Government is supposed to release a State of the Environment Report every five years, but the Liberals have completely failed on this statutory requirement in both 2014 and 2019. It’s good news that a report has been prepared this year, but there’s been every indication the Liberals had been set to, in typical fashion, delay its release until the end of the year.
A range of environmental organisations have been calling for the immediate release of this report, because they know it will be full of information that needs genuine Parliamentary scrutiny – including in Budget Estimates hearings. The Liberals have to date refused to accept this request, which is why we put forward this motion.
Releasing this report now means the Liberals won’t be able to wait until the end of the Parliament year in November before they release this critically important report. It will mean there can be proper scrutiny of all the important information the report contains.
In advance, we acknowledge the important work that has gone into compiling the State of the Environment Report and look forward to the opportunity of now analysing it ahead of Budget Estimates week.
