Northern Australia is a region with unique landscapes and ecosystems, a diverse economy, and is largely owned and managed by First Nations peoples. Supporting communities across Northern Australia is an important role of Government. The outstanding natural, cultural and heritage values of the North are almost without parallel across the world. Its diverse landscapes include tropical rainforests, wetlands and mangroves, grasslands and desert. Many of these landscapes are globally significant and support rich biodiversity, with plant and animal species found nowhere else. The north is home to seven World Heritage Sites with outstanding natural and scientific values: the Great Barrier Reef, the Wet Tropics of Queensland, Kakadu National Park, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Ningaloo Coast, Purnululu National Park and the Riversleigh Australian Fossil Mammal Site. These areas are under huge risk from climate change and inappropriate development.
The Greens support ‘undertaking a serious examination of, and response to, the risks posed by climate change to the region; and greater engagement with local communities, especially First Nations communities’ outlined in Recommendation 1 but we need to be doing more than this. Australia needs to be taking more urgent and immediate action to address climate change and reduce our emissions to net zero by 2035.
The Australian Greens are supportive of investments in appropriate infrastructure, safer communities, improved health, education, social services and employment. However, investments need to be carefully assessed to ensure long term sustainability. Development must be targeted towards the needs and priorities of local communities. It should also take full account of environmental impacts, including climate change.
The Australian Greens believe that Australia's freshwater resources are coming under increasing pressure as a result of growing human demands, environmental degradation and the climate crisis.
It is important that investment in infrastructure not be used to fund environmentally damaging, unsustainable dams. As the Northern Australia Land and Water Taskforce noted in their final report, contrary to popular belief, water resources in the north are neither unlimited, nor wasted.
The Australian Greens remain opposed to any new dams—either publicly or privately funded being constructed. Investing in water efficiency mechanisms and projects is essential and must be prioritised and considered ahead of other projects or measures.
The Australian Greens do not support Government subsidies to environmentally unsustainable dams, which can damage Northern Australia’s river systems, environmental resources and First Nations cultural and heritage.