In March Lock the Gate commissioned polling in several electorates focussed on reform of Australia’s Nature laws, the Environment Protection Biodiversity and Conservation Act. Wills was one of the electorates that was surveyed.

The results across all the electorates surveyed (Cooper, Wills, Higgins, MacNamara, Richmond) reveal that:

• More than 75% of respondents in each seat support updating legislation to reflect the current state of the environment and latest scientific findings. In Wills this was supported by 77.1%
• More than 70% believe communities should be able to challenge the validity of federal environmental approval decisions. In Wills 76% support this.
• More than two-thirds believe the federal government should be able to reject developments if the climate impacts will harm Australian wildlife. In Wills 66.6% support this.
• More than 84% believe that companies seeking environmental approvals should be prohibited from making political donations. In Wills this was supported by 85%.

The first questions asked were about voting preference, and for undecided voters, which way they would lean. The two party contest in Wills is Labor vs Greens and the poll found 61% ALP 39% split, although it is generally recognised the margin is about 8.65 per cent based on the 2022 election results and boundaries.

Labor’s Peter Khalil won the seat of Wills in 2016, and was relected in 2019 and 2022. The Greens have preselected Samantha Ratnam, who previously lead the Greens in the Victorian Upper House and was also a former Councillor and Mayor of Merri-bek.

Electoral redistribution for Victoria is taking place with draft boundaries proposing Gowenbrae, parts of Glenroy and Oak Park to be moved to Maribyrnong, and new areas of East Brunswick, Princess Hill and Fitzroy North from Melbourne added to Wills. These changes will favour the Greens candidate. BenRaue from The Tally Room initial calculation is that the Wills ALP vs GRN margin of 8.6% will reduce to 4.6%.

Wills citizens surveyed on environment laws

Lock the Gate Alliance National Advocacy Coordinator Han Aulby said, “The Albanese Labor Government has abandoned its election promise to fix Australia’s broken environment laws.

“Instead of dealing with Australia’s climate and biodiversity crises the Albanese Government has folded to pressure from the WA mining industry and the Coalition,” Mx Aulby said.

Here are the poll questions broken down by Sex, Age, and voting intention for Wills.

Question 2: The Federal Government has made a commitment that there should be no more extinction of species in Australia. Do you support or oppose reforms to Australia’s national environment laws that would prevent plant and animal extinctions?

Question 3: To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement: Our environmental laws should be updated to reflect the current state of the environment and the latest science when decisions are made.

Question 4: Current national environment laws do not require the climate change impacts of proposed developments to be assessed as part of the approval process. Do you agree that the Federal Government should be able to reject development proposals if their climate impact is likely to cause harm to wildlife and habitats in Australia?

Question 5: To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement: The public should be able to appeal an environmental approval decision on its merits to test whether the science and information it was based on was valid.

Question 6: To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement: Companies that are seeking environmental approvals from the Federal Government should be prohibited from making political donations during the assessment process.

Question 7: To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement: The Federal Government has an important role to play in protecting the environment and it should retain decisions on major projects rather than handing them back to state or territory governments to make.

Effective sample size in Wills was 609.

The new Labor Government elected in May 2022 promised to deliver major reform to the National Environment Laws in this term of Government. The present laws do not take into account the impacts of climate change. The Water trigger has been amended in the EPBC Act, but is yet to be used. Proposed amendments to establish EPA Australia, and an environmental data assessment agency are needed, but are of limited value without the major reforms to the Act. Inclusion of a Climate Trigger process is greatly needed.

References:

Lock the Gate, May 14, 2024, City voters back regional communities, highlighting risk for Labor in key marginals: polling https://www.lockthegate.org.au/city_voters_back_regional_communities_highlighting_risk_for_labor_in_key_marginals_polling

UComms, 13 March 2024, Final results for Wills, https://assets.nationbuilder.com/lockthegate/pages/8675/attachments/original/1713410486/Wills_FinalResults_13032024-Results.pdf

Ben Raue, The Tally Room, 31 May 2024, VIC and WA federal redistribution drafts released – live https://www.tallyroom.com.au/55766

Ben Raue, The Guardian, 1 June 2024, The winners and losers of Australia’s proposed electoral redistribution explained, https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/jun/01/the-winners-and-losers-of-australias-proposed-electoral-redistribution-explained