Australian Labor Government approves northern airport road, destroying vital habitat of Canberra’s very own lizard

Last week, The Australian Labor Government gave the Canberra Airport the go-ahead to build it’s northern airport road, destroying vital habitat of Canberra’s very own lizard, the critically endangered Canberra Grassland Earless Dragon. The Government communicated the decision to us late on Friday at 4.07 pm. Also read our media release.

This decision comes after years of community opposition to this project. It is another betrayal by the Federal Labor Government, who have promised no new extinctions, yet continue to make decisions that put developer profits over our environment.

Naturally, we are devastated, not just for what it means for the Canberra Grassland Earless Dragon, but also what it says about the state of our politics and federal environment laws.

Our collective advocacy, has, however not been in vain.

Despite this disappointing decision, we have extracted some important concessions from the government and airport. Specifically, the new variation to the airport’s approval now requires that they:

• rehabilitate an additional area of 5.64 ha on the Airport (north of the runway and its taxiways) to natural temperate grassland standard within 10 years*,
• construct fauna passageways, road crossings and barrier fencing on the road to protect Canberra Grassland Earless Dragon**, and
• pay the ACT Goverment $1 million over 4 years, in four $250 thousand instalments, for research, captive breeding or habitat restoration for the Canberra Grassland Earless Dragon.

While these conditions are nowhere near enough to make up for the destruction this road will wreak, they are important small wins, and we will be hot on the heels of the airport to ensure it lives up to these requirements.

I would love to end this on a happy note, with a claim that we can still stop this road. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if the bulldozers move in to clear this land sooner rather than later.

To be clear, that doesn’t mean the end for Canberra’s dragon. The ACT Government has recently invested a record amount of money into a breeding program for this species, specifically designed to boost their genetic diversity so they can be reintroduced into the wild. This is a vital step. Yet, we do not want this species to become an exhibit in a zoo, and that is why we continue to call for the protection and rehabilitation of their habitat.

This decision also doesn’t mean the fight for Canberra’s environment ends. Instead, it strengthens our resolve. This case makes it clear that we have to fight harder than ever to fix our environment laws, improve funding for nature, and tip the political scales so that developers can no longer run roughshod over our endangered species and beautiful natural places.

This is what we are committed to doing at the Conservation Council, but we can’t do it without you. So if this decision makes you angry, get involved or donate now, so this can never happen again.

*while this is good, the airport has a bad track record in rehabilitating grasslands, so we will be pushing to ensure they actually achieve this. 

**we are sceptical these will work, but will be pushing the airport to ensure they are constructed and that they conduct research of their efficacy for the use in future projects. 

(Photo by Keegan Carroll)