Australian icons set to 'pay a heavy price' after Federal Budget 2024 'failure'

Australia’s 2024 Federal Budget has been described as “inadequate” and the “worst in recent years”. Conservationists have claimed the Albanese Government has “failed” to allocate new money to stem the nation’s booming list of plants and animals, like populations of koalas and iconic bird species, facing extinction.

Easing cost-of-living pressures were clearly important for Treasurer Jim Chalmers, who announced $300 electricity rebates and generous changes to the Stage 3 Tax Cuts that will help working families. The climate will also benefit through a $22.7 billion investment in the Future Made in Australia renewable energy scheme.

But for the 2000 "battling" animals, plant and ecological communities on the Commonwealth's threatened species list, experts warn the future looks grim. They are concerned there has been very little new money invested in nature conservation, even though Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has committed her government to stopping new extinctions.

Find out how the 2024 Federal Budget will impact you by following Yahoo Finance’s coverage here.

How much the government allocated to species recovery and protection, national parks, renewable energy and climate analysis in the 2023 and 2024 budgets has been compared by the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF).

Looking at the categories as a whole, the not-for-profit found total government spending will peak in 2024/2025 but will track downward after that.

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ACF CEO Kelly O’Shannassy warned Australia will pay "a heavy price" if more funding isn't allocated to achieve Albanese's commitment to ensuring there are no new extinctions under his watch.

“The nature budget is inadequate and is flagged to drop disastrously in coming years,” she said.

“At present, the Albanese government doesn’t have plans on how to meet its no new extinctions promise. Meanwhile, the threat of extinctions continues to grow.”

“Experts say two aquatic creatures, the Maugean skate and the Yalmy galaxias are in line to be the first Australian species to go extinct on this government’s watch."

Where is the government spending on nature?

When it comes to protecting Australia's biodiversity, most of the government's other plans had already been announced. Major funding decisions include:

• $134.2 million to strengthen and streamline environmental approval decisions for renewable energy and critical minerals projects.

• $121 million for a national independent Environment Protection Agency.

• $51.5 million for the new two years, and report on progress on national environmental goals.

Another smaller spend was $1.3 million over four years for "litter prevention", however, the Environment Department was unable to tell Yahoo Finance how the funds would be spent.

"More details will be announced in due course," it said.

Why 2024 Federal Budget has been labelled a 'funding failure'

Dr Sarah Bekessy the lead councillor at independent expert group Biodiversity Council said the government was “shooting itself in the foot” with what she described as a “funding failure”.

“The government went into the election with pretty strong commitments to revising the [Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act], they’ve put forward their Nature Positive Plan, and they’ve committed on the global stage to protecting 30 per cent of ecosystems, and all of that requires investment,” she said.

Noting that around 50 per cent of Australia’s GDP depends on natural systems, she said the 2024 Budget was “one of the worst budgets I've seen for nature and biodiversity in terms of new spending”.

“We all ultimately depend on having a healthy planet to survive. You know the old saying: There's no jobs on a dead planet,” she told Yahoo Finance.

“We've got the Great Barrier Reef collapsing in front of our eyes, we’ve got so many of our precious species disappearing in front of us. And it’s species like koalas, gang-gang cockatoos, and even bogong moths that once used to cover Parliament House."

The Wilderness Society warned the biodiversity crisis is "on par" with the climate crisis, but said a lack of funding would "ensure" nature continued to decline.

"The Albanese government has again responded to this crisis with shrugged shoulders and more of the same. It’s clear that nature is not a priority for the Albanese government—a government that was elected on the promise of environment and climate action," its biodiversity advisor Sam Szoke-Burke said.

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