Sam Szoke-Burke | A healthy environment is our right. Give us a bigger say in its future

This is the latest acknowledgement by the UN and its member states that the health of the planet, and respecting the voices of First Nations and other communities, are integral to upholding human rights.

The resolution points out that healthy environments rely on citizens being able to access relevant information, participate in public environmental decision-making and seek legal remedies for deficient government decisions. In this way it lays bare the chasm between global attitudes towards environmental protection and Australia's current approach.

Australia's federal environment law, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, is currently undergoing a crucial reform process following a once-in-a-decade review led by Professor Graeme Samuel in 2020.

The Samuel review received over 30,000 submissions, many of which had a common theme: that community trust in our environmental protection laws has been eroded.

A lack of transparency in decision making and limited opportunity for people to engage with government decisions about projects affecting the environment are key factors informing this distrust.

The Samuel review recommended that trust can be restored through environmental law reform that incorporates principles of transparency and strong oversight, all the while allowing those who will actually be affected by proposed projects to have their voices heard.

Indeed, the current government has said that "restoring integrity and trust to systems and environmental laws" is one of three "essential principles" guiding its reform agenda.

Although only in early stages, current reform plans indicate some willingness to deliver on this promise, by establishing a data division to improve access to information and establishing National Environment Standards on community consultation and First Nations participation.

Yet there are striking gaps in the government's plans. Key among these is a refusal to incorporate merits review into the new law, meaning affected people and communities will be unable to seek a third-party review of a ministerial decision to approve an environmentally harmful project.

To restore the community's trust in our environmental laws, the government should allow the community to question the merits of ministerial decisions.

This is an essential component of an effective system of checks and balances. It can enable people to act against potentially unjustifiable, and harmful, environmental decisions.

If we can get a third umpire review of a dodgy call at the cricket, shouldn't Australians also be able to challenge a decision that could mean the difference between a vital habitat flourishing or collapsing?

Last year, we also had confirmation of continued, drastic, environmental decline when the State of the Environment report was released in July. Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek came out hard against the poor environmental performance displayed in the report, expressing her intention to turn the ship around after nine years of significant environmental destruction under the coalition government.

While reform and new laws are a significant piece of this puzzle, we cannot ignore the ways that environmental outcomes can be improved right now, without having to wait for a lengthy reform process.

The former government scrapped the need for over 150 recovery plans for threatened species during their final months of power, pushing already vulnerable species closer to extinction without a requirement to develop a strategy to protect them.

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This is a decision that the current government could reverse under current laws.

Another glaring gap is a current lack of departmental funding.

Without adequate funding the government cannot hope to implement and oversee effective environment laws at the scale necessary to reverse habitat destruction and species extinction. Yet there has been no indication that next month's federal budget will match the minister's rhetoric; rather than turning around, the ship risks drifting further into treacherous waters.

As the world inches closer to formally recognising a human right to a healthy environment, Australia must seize on the opportunity of the EPBC reform process to build in ample opportunity for First Nations and other communities to speak up for the nature that supports and nurtures them.

As the reform process plays out, more immediate measures to halt environmental destruction and to listen to communities are available for the taking. If it is our right to live and thrive in a sustainable and healthy environment, we must be afforded the power to influence decisions that affect our environment.