National

Environmental protection

Opinion

Our law to ‘save’ nature is a rubber stamp for species extinction

Natalie Kyriacou Environmentalist November 1, 2025 — 5.00am

Australian governments have perfected the art of watching things die, then approving more things to keep the dead things company. For example, many people assume that Australia’s federal nature law does something to protect the environment. But no. This law is known as the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 , and in practical terms, it’s mostly good at extincting things.

The EPBC Act, at present, performs two key functions: it irritates business and destroys nature. For more than two decades, this law has presided over a grand national experiment: how much nature can you destroy whi

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