The Politics of the Environment in Australia

Australia has a distinctive environment, with rich remnant biodiversity, mega-diversity (Kirkpatrick 1994), and World Heritage listings, but it persists with Eurocentric settler practices, exploiting its natural resources, and rolling back its ecological frontiers. Valuing nature and transitioning to sustainability are advocated by experts, academics, green political parties, environmental NGOs, and, increasingly, by civil society. However, attention to environmental policy waxes and wanes according to national circumstances, with the major parties typically more accommodating of pressures to develop than protect the environment. Ecology and climate change are therefore persistent challenges that are routinely subject to political contestation and polarization. While recurrent developmentalism, environmental impacts and policy failures are central to Australian politics today, they are not prominent in political or policy-based analysis. This chapter presents an overview of the key issues.