The huge effort already devoted to the environment by the Coalition will be further boosted by an additional $90 million over three years to improve our urban environment, protect our oceans and increase support for cultural heritage.
The additional $90 million from consolidated revenue is on top of the extra $250 million which the Coalition will provide to the Natural Heritage Trust from the sale of the second, 16 per cent, tranche of Telstra.
This brings our total new commitment to the environment to $340 million.
As well as continuing the massive effort to repair our environment through the Natural Heritage Trust, we will significantly expand our efforts to address urban environmental problems and improve the management and protection of Australia’s oceans.
$50 million will be provided to establish a new Living Cities program which will target problems in our cities such as air quality, polluted urban waterways, waste management and chemicals.
The Coalition has done much over the past two years to improve the environment of our major urban centres. This new program will significantly boost those efforts in dealing with issues that affect the quality of life of the millions of Australians that live in our major cities.
Living Cities will:
- improve the management of air toxics;
- increase the uptake of compressed natural gas which is a cleaner alternative to traditional fuels;
- support major rehabilitation projects in our urban streams and waterways;
- support the promotion of recycling through a resource recovery centre program; and
- improve the management of unwanted chemicals.
The Coalition will also provide $50 million to improve the management of Australia’s marine territories and to implement Australia’s oceans policy. $30 million will be provided from consolidated revenue and $20 million from the Natural Heritage Trust.
This funding will build on the achievements that have been made possible through the Natural Heritage Trust funded Coasts and Clean Seas program which is providing $125 million for coastal and marine protection. It will support efforts to improve the management of our oceans, through the development of marine regional plans, improved water quality, an expansion of the marine conservation reserve system and efforts to reduce the impacts of acid sulfate soils.
The Coalition will also provide $3.4 million over three years to improve surveillance in the Great Barrier Reef.
Most users of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park respect the rules that are in place to protect the areas unique environment. This support for increased policing of the Park will allow us to crack-down on those that flout the rules and undermine our efforts to conserve the Reef.
The Coalition will also establish a $3 million a year Cultural Heritage Projects Program which will support communities that are working to conserve and restore our built and indigenous heritage. The new program will absorb the existing National Estate Grants Program.
During the last two years, the Howard/Fischer government has put in place, for the first time, a well funded comprehensive plan to protect Australia’s environment and natural resource base through the Natural Heritage Trust.
We are now working to address Australia’s most significant problems in a well coordinated way which is in stark contrast the noisy interest group driven approach of the former Labor government.
The Labor Party regards the environment as a political tool rather than an investment in our children’s future. When they were killing Wesley Vale and turning our forests into battlegrounds, our rivers were still being polluted, salinity was increasing and our oceans were neglected.
In contrast, the Coalition has invested record levels of funding in dealing with the real problems facing our environment.
Our Living Heritage will allow the Coalition to make more real progress and ensure that our environment is protected for this and future generations of Australians.
22 September 1998