A review of the 2025-26 federal budget by the Biodiversity Council has found that the Albanese government is still far short of investing what is required to meet its own environmental commitments, despite recent funding commitments for protected areas.
The Australian government’s own targets include preventing extinctions of plants and animals, restoring degraded lands and conserving 30 per cent of lands and seas by 2023.
Biodiversity Council Director James Trezise said, ‘Whilst there are some positive signs, the reality is this budget doesn’t come close to addressing the systemic under-investment in nature protection that we have seen from successive federal governments.
‘The National Strategy for Nature outlines how the Australian government intends to deliver its international obligations, but sufficient funding to carry out that work is dramatically lacking.’
Funding gap
Mr Trezise said, ‘The government has committed $250 million over the next five years to tackle invasive species, create new national parks and expand private and Indigenous protected areas.
‘However it’s estimated that 20 times that amount is needed just to fulfil Australia’s commitments on protecting 30 per cent of land in a connected and well-represented protected area network.
‘It’s also estimated that $2.34 billion per year is needed to safeguard threatened species on land and in the oceans from extinction. It is absolutely essential for the long-term sustainability of our nation that the work to deliver those commitments is undertaken, but it cannot happen without proper resourcing,’ he said.
‘The lack of funding to deliver the strategy is doubly frustrating as the strategy recognises that “half of Australia’s GDP depends on nature” and that “The value of conserving biodiversity outweighs the costs of restoration.”
‘Investment in caring for nature, like recovering threatened species, controlling feral animals and weeds, and better managing fires, is still less than one-thousandth of the national budget.
Research findings
Recent research undertaken by Monash University for the Biodiversity Council found that almost all Australians (95 per cent) believe that more of the federal budget should be dedicated to nature protection.
‘The Australian government spends many times more on activities likely to harm the environment, like subsidising fossil fuel use and handouts for mining projects, than on the protection and care of nature.
‘Under the Global Biodiversity Framework the Australian Government is committed to identify, reform and phase out subsidies that harm nature. As a nation, Australia has consistently underinvested in the protection and recovery of nature, relative to other developed nations and relative to its importance to our economy.
‘Lifting nature’s share of the federal budget to just 1 per cent would provide enough funding to meet most of the Australian Government’s environmental commitments,’ said James Trezise.
The Biodiversity Council is an independent expert group founded by 11 Australian universities to promote evidence-based solutions to Australia’s biodiversity crisis.
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