The NSW Shadow Minister for the Environment, Penny Sharpe, has accused the Premier, the Minister for the Environment and the Office of Environment of ignoring World Environment Day and ignoring the environmental challenges facing NSW.

The lack of acknowledgement of World Environment Day is just another sign of the Berejiklian Government’s complete lack of commitment to the environment in NSW.

Labor has provided a list of actions the Premier and the Environment Minister could have taken to celebrate World Environment Day. They include:

1. Acknowledge World Environment Day and the theme of connecting to nature with a bushwalk in one of NSW’s national parks;
2. Support Labor’s bill to ban single use plastic bags;
3. Set out an agenda for protecting biodiversity across NSW in our national parks, in partnership with private landholders;
4. Announce a plan to save the koala through the establishment of koala national parks;
5. Listen to scientists and ensure that land clearing laws and regulations do not lead to a reduction in native vegetation;
6. Release a road map outlining how NSW will get to the stated target of zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050;
7. Appoint the expert panel to guide coastal management;
8. Announce that Sydney Harbour will become a marine park;
9. Commit to protecting urban green spaces through laws and regulations that protect loss from overdevelopment; and/or
10. Ensure that the EPA has the resources to manage contaminated lands, especially those with a legacy from asbestos dumping.

It is 43 years since the first World Environment Day was held in 1974. World Environment Day is marked on the anniversary of the meeting of the UN on the Human Environment.

Every year on 5 June, governments, environment organisations and local communities celebrate and highlight the successes and challenges that face the environment – but in NSW there has been nothing.

Quotes attributable to Shadow Environment Minister Penny Sharpe

“The lack of acknowledgement of World Environment Day smacks of neglect, complacency and a lack of commitment to the environment from the Berejiklian Government.

“Not a media release, not a speech, not a visit, nor an announcement on this important environmental day.

“The environmental challenges that need to be faced in this state require care, attention and commitment.

“All of these are lacking in the Berejiklian Government.”