In 2019, the Morrison Government watered down Australia's biodiversity conservation commitments, replacing specific, measurable goals with a set of so-called ‘progress measures’ that are unspecific, untargeted, and underwhelming.

By the time their milestone biodiversity report was published in 2020, they were unable to properly measure progress because of ‘insufficient national-scale data’.

And it appears, from the same report, that Australia did not achieve any of the 20 global Aichi targets during 2014 - 2018.

By these failures, and others - like their massive 40 per cent funding cut to the environment department - the Liberals and Nationals have let Australians down.

Despite this Government's failures they must now be part of a global call for increased biodiversity conservation, as the parties to the Convention develop the post-2020 Global biodiversity framework.

Australians expect their Government to show leadership and call for an ambitious and strong set of global goals and targets for the next decade to address the biodiversity crisis facing the world.

TUESDAY, 12 OCTOBER 2021