Prime Minister you must act!. Declare the SA algal bloom a National Emergency so communities and researchers can get the resources and help they need. And end the new fossil fuel projects that are driving these heatwaves – starting by revoking the North West Shelf approval!.

We need to start treating marine heatwaves like the disasters they are. The SA toxic algal bloom – driven by a heatwave – is just another example of the devastation they wreak on our wildlife & communities. And we know they will only get worse as the oceans warm further.

The govt seems content to look the other way when environmental disasters occur underwater – out of sight, out of mind for so many. Just look at the lack of action in response to the record beaching on Ningaloo and the Great Barrier Reef this summer. And now South Australia.

The Greens are ready to work constructively across party lines to increase our marine protected areas. Importantly, we want more parks placed in ecologically significant areas of the marine environment & to include no extractive activities such as drilling for oil and gas!.

This Treaty is critical for achieving the global 30x30 aim to protect 30% of oceans by 2030. It's a positive step – one that only last week I called on the Govt to urgently take. But Australia still has much to do before we come close to being world leaders in ocean protection.

It is great to hear the Albanese government will introduce legislation to ratify the UN High Seas Treaty. This Treaty will implement a framework to manage & protect international waters – which remain a lawless frontier where environmental destruction is often met with impunity.

Labor must reject not only this new plan by the QLD govt, but also work with the Greens in the next federal Parliament to strengthen our environment laws and close the loophole that allows the continued use of nets and drumlines on Australian beaches in the first place.

The QLD govt's $88M investment is not to protect our beaches, it's to protect politicians!. Sharks are being scapegoated to sow fear & division in an LNP culture war. The use of destructive nets on Australian beaches is absurd when there are so many better alternatives!.

We know lethal nets and drumlines are indiscriminate killers of marine wildlife & research shows they don’t actually reduce shark interactions. In fact, shark nets can attract sharks to beaches where they can feed on marine wildlife caught in the nets.

The QLD govt’s plan to expand its use of shark nets and drumlines is not shark control – it’s a shark cull!. The federal Environment Minister must reject it.

But clearly dirty fossil fuel profits are just more important in the eyes of the Albanese Government. The approval of the North West Shelf extension is a complete betrayal by Labor – of our wildlife, environment, oceans, life on this planet and future generations.

Our oceans are cooking. Just south of where Labor has detonated this climate bomb, Ningaloo Reef has suffered record mass coral bleaching due to warming oceans. And to the east the Great Barrier Reef has been hit with a seventh major bleaching event!.

Do Labor not understand we are in a climate crisis, or do they just not care?. This climate bomb will release up to 6.1B tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. That’s well over the maximum 3.5B tonnes of emissions the govt can release while still achieving net-zero by 2050.

This week Labor approved some of the most polluting fossil fuel projects in Australia’s history & locked us into gas until 2070 by ticking off Woodside’s North West Shelf extension project.

It’s great to see govts investing in modern, non-lethal shark mitigation!. We know that lethal nets & drumlines don't keep beaches safe & harm marine wildlife. Surveillance, resource building and education in collaboration with community like this is the way to go. More of this!

The evidence in this report is clear – there is no more time to waste. The Greens call on both major parties to commit to mandating our nation’s waste reduction targets, banning harmful single use plastics, and legislating EPR schemes in the next parliament.

Like most environmental problems, plastic pollution is also a political problem. It’s hardly surprising that policies have failed given successive governments have chosen to put the responsibility for waste on consumers, rather than hold big producers & retailers to account.

Australia is losing the war on waste. The new Senate inquiry report into Australia’s waste reduction and recycling policies shows clearly that our current and historic federal policy framework has failed. It is time for strong, political action on the waste crisis.

A Senate inquiry into marine invasive species recommended establishing and funding a long-spined sea urchin task force, and the Greens are eager to work with all sides of politics in the next parliament to make this a reality.

If our terrestrial forests were being decimated at the same rate as our kelp forests there would be uproar. It’s predicted that half of all Tassie’s east coast reefs will be lost by the mid-2030s unless action is taken to protect the Great Southern Reef.