The decision to replace Tanya Plibersek as Australia’s Minister for Environment with Senator Murray Watt “is a kick in the guts for every nature-loving Australian.” That is according to Bob Brown of the Bob Brown Foundation, who said, “The only good thing to come out of Watt’s appointment is that it will create more jobs in environmental activism.”
Yesterday, Wood Central reported that replacing Plibersek with Watt, one of the biggest shake-ups in the Albanese cabinet, will see Watt take over responsibility for establishing a Federal Environmental Protection Authority – one of this prime minister’s top priorities for his second term.
“This ministry is set to send young Australians into even greater despair. Albanese has achieved that with this appointment. Watt backs native forestry, salmon cage pollution, woodland clearance of 2 million hectares in five years and koala killing, as well as more global heating and coral bleaching.”
Bob Brown of the Bob Brown Foundation.
Before being appointed Minister for Environment and Water, Watt served Albanese’s first term as Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry before taking over as Industrial Relations and Emergency Management Minister halfway through the term. A member of the Queensland Labor Party’s left faction, a labour insider told Wood Central yesterday that “he has extensive experience (across the portfolios) and (as Federal Emergency Minister) was responsible for helping communities in Lismore, on New South Wales’ mid-north coast.”
- To learn more about the cabinet reshuffle, click here for Wood Central’s special feature yesterday.
