Tuesday, June 5 is World Environment Day and Federal Member for Forde Bert van Manen MP is encouraging residents to celebrate the day, which is observed to encourage awareness and action for the protection of our environment.
“It’s also a great opportunity to celebrate our beautiful local environment here in Forde,” Mr van Manen said.
The Coalition Government is delivering practical outcomes for our environment, including:
- delivering $1.1 billion over seven years from 2016-17 to 2022-23 for continuation of the National Landcare Program to support on-the-ground action;
- announcing an additional $500 million investment to further protect the Great Barrier Reef and the 64,000 jobs that rely on it, on top of our joint investment with the Queensland Government of $2 billion over the next decade to ensure the health of the Reef;
- investing over $255 million for species conservation, appointing Australia’s first ever Threatened Species Commissioner and launching the first ever Threatened Species Prospectus; and
- working with states, territories and to voluntarily phase out the use of microbeads in cosmetic and personal care products, with 94 per cent of these products now microbead-free.
The theme of this year’s World Environment Day is Beat Plastic Pollution, which is a vital challenge for Australia.
Last financial year, 3.5 million tonnes of plastics were consumed in Australia and 5.7 billion single-use plastic bags were used. That’s more than 200 bags per person.
“Since it began in 1974, World Environment Day has grown to be widely celebrated in over 100 countries including Australia,” Mr van Manen said.
“It calls for strong awareness and action for the protection of our environment – whether that action be local, national or global.
“Taking action could be as simple as swapping plastic shopping bags for reusable bags or giving up plastic drink bottles and instead buying a reusable drink bottle.
“Every little thing we can do to cut down on plastic waste will make a huge difference to our environment.”
