Canada and Australia - Comparing Environmental Policies in 16 Countries - page 149

water quality. They maintained that their approach to reducing greenhouse
gases is superior to the Kyoto Protocol method. The Nationals pledge to
protect the environment and conserve its unique beauty. As befits the for-
mer Country Party, they argue that “farmers … have always recognized
the need to be good stewards of our land and water resources,” and seek
“arrangements for stable, well-defined water allocation.” They want to
“secure the resource base of Australia's primary industries.” 12 While Labor
continues to advocate for the environment, the Liberals and the Nationals
no longer do so. Their attacks particularly focus on the carbon tax, which
both Coalition parties oppose.
A small Green Party has existed since 1992. Although its representatives
and senators became pivotal to Labor control in the hung parliament after
the 2010 election, over the long term the electoral system does not give
much opportunity to small parties with diffuse support like the Greens.
Moreover Labor's positive attitude toward the environment has preempted
room for a big green party. In 1984 the Labor Party voted to approve a ura-
nium mine. Opponents from the peace movement, in existence since the
1950s and active in protesting the Vietnam War, countered by organizing
the National Disarmament Party, eventually supporting the Green Party.
Present-day Greens continue to be antiwar and antinuclear. Recently, the
Green Party had nine senators and one representative.
At the federal level, the Labor government elected in 1972 and headed by
Gough Whitlam, sought to protect the environment. Three years earlier
the party platform first offered detailed proposals to protect natural flora,
fauna, and landscapes, to preserve the Great Barrier Reef, to ban DDT, and
to conserve the land against loss, drought, overstocking, or erosion. In 1974
Parliament passed the Environmental Protection (Impact of Proposals)
Act. The next year it passed the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation
Act, and later the Nuclear Codes. Automobiles were required to have
catalytic converters.
Much of the authority over mining and forests belonged to the states
rather than the Commonwealth government. For example, in 1984 the
federal government was afraid to force the Queensland government to
nominate the Daintree rain forest as a World Heritage Site. The states
have a full array of environmental laws. For instance, New South Wales
has provisions on soil conservation, clean air, clean water, waste disposal,
hazardous chemicals, ozone, threatened species, and many other items.
At this time Australia was influenced by global events like the Club of
Rome Report , the Stockholm Summit, and activity in the United States and