WHILE the ALP states it will have "more to say" on the environment before the election, to their shame the Victorian National and Liberal parties are "divided over whether to release an environment policy", (The Age November 15).
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Before the election of 2010, they failed to do so. Their environmental record in government has been appalling. For decades, public policy attention has expected a "triple bottom line" of social, environmental and economic policy to be applied to ensure society as a whole is heading towards a carefully considered future.
How can the National and Liberal parties purport to represent us when they wipe out a whole third of what matters and refuse to even think about issues that concern the land we depend upon? Why would one even have to ask?
The significance of the environment is profound. How can local candidates Ben Taylor, Craig Coltman, Sonia Smith, Scott Turner and Louise Staley look the electorate in the eye and own this party line which they will have to hold to?
No environment policy is a recipe for small mindedness and vested interests; it is a cop out for the people of the Wendouree, Buninyong and Ripon electorates.
Just some of the reasons that a policy on the environment is essential are population increase; balanced, rational planning and economic development; citizen health (e.g. air, water and soil pollution); agricultural prosperity and productivity; social health and planning for healthy outdoor spaces as population climbs; and the setting of conservation goals in the state with the worst record for endangered species over decades, and worsening.
These issues pale against the huge complexities we face as climate change starts to bite such as heat deaths, increased bushfire risks, economic issues of lowered food security, impacts of land and water degradation and the economic transition to renewable energy.
Are you prepared to vote for these major political parties who put their heads in the sand? I'm not.