In a terrible performance in Parliament today, Premier Jeremy Rockliff refused to accept any responsibility for the environmental degradation highlighted in the State of the Environment Report. Alarmingly, he also refused to commit to better protections for the environment – despite the strong calls made by this comprehensive study.
The science in the State of the Environment Report is clear – Tasmania’s forests, native animals, waterways and climate are going backwards under the Liberals. It’s not acceptable for the Rockliff Government to deny the science, or back in their corporate mates to continue to trash Tasmania’s environment. Yet in Parliament, that’s exactly what the Premier did.
This report is damning and demands a proper response. It’s shameful to see Premier Rockliff instead continuing to support the Liberal’s corporate mates in the forestry and aquaculture industries, who have destroyed the environment unchecked for the last decade.
There is so much the Liberals have to answer for when it comes to the worsening state of the environment. That’s why we asked the Premier to apologise to Tasmanians, and to future generations, for his failure to act while native forests are logged and burned, oceans warm from continued emissions, and native species are pushed towards extinction.
The Premier refused to apologise for the deterioration in our environment on his government’s watch – and to change anything in their policies to prevent more damage.
The State of the Environment Report makes recommendations to improve Tasmania’s environmental health that the Greens have been proposing for years. The Premier must commit to implementing the recommendations in full, before it’s too late for lutruwita/Tasmania’s precious environment and native species.
