Media statement. May 4, 2016

Key Australian environment groups today called on the Federal Environment Minister, Mr Greg Hunt, to reject recommendations of a report of an inquiry into the charitable status of environment groups. The CEOs of WWF, The Australian Conservation Society, The Wilderness Society, Greenpeace Australia Pacific, Friends of the Earth and the Nature Conservation Council of NSW issued the following statement on behalf of the Places You Love alliance:

Several UN Sustainable Development Goals are irreconcilable with Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal¹

As Trade Ministers meet in Hawaii to continue the secret negotiations of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), Friends of the Earth Melbourne’s Economic Justice Collective have released a paper titled ‘

The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a secret trade agreement that will adversely affect the environment, worker’s rights, cost of medicines, internet freedoms, food safety, intellectual property rights and indigenous rights.

Friends of the Earth can announce today that the Victorian Government has withdrawn from a controversial logging trial planned for the Barmah National Park, part of the world’s largest red gum forest.

The joint Victoria-NSW logging trial would have seen commercial logging machinery felling trees across 400 hectares of national park on both sides of the Murray River.

Ted Baillieu’s 2011 planning laws ban wind farms from large parts of Victoria, and just one objector can stop any wind turbine within 2km.

Wind farms create income for farmers and communities. They do not have pollution or health hazards like coal. They share benefits across large sections of the state. We could have new jobs in manufacturing, construction and maintenance here in Victoria if wind projects were allowed to go ahead.