Tuesday 2nd February. Leading South Australian environmental groups today launched a shared 2010 State Election Policy Agenda.  (download pdf 3.4MB )
The Nature Conservation Society of SA (NCSSA) The Wilderness Society (TWS), Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) and the Conservation Council of South Australia are asking policital parties to support 16 specific environmental policy commitments, as listed below.

1. Implement Sanctuary Zones to highly protect at least 30 percent of South Australia's marine habitats in accordance with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) scientific benchmark and commit a minimum of $40 million to implement the Marine Parks Programme.

2. Protect the Simpson Desert region under the Wilderness Protection Act 1992 as a matter of urgency.

3. Invest an additional $20 million in large scale conservation programs, such as NatureLinks, that are based on practical action to protect and restore wildlife and natural habitats. This must include mitigating the impacts of climate change on our biodiversity.

4. Protect the unique ecology of the Upper Spencer Gulf and the breeding ground of the Giant Australian Cuttlefish by prohibiting the construction of a major desalination plant in this fragile region by BHP Billiton.

5. Commit South Australia to a peak and decline of greenhouse pollution levels during the next State Government term of office to 2014. This requires:

• rejecting the BHP Roxby mine plan for a jump of 12 percent in SA's total greenhouse gas emissions
• BHP to use renewable energy for the full electricity supply to the proposed new open pit mine

6. Prevent South Australia becoming the Radioactive State by requiring BHP's Roxby mine to:

• only trade in copper
• not export radioactive concentrates, and
• leave the uranium and other radioactive waste at the mine site

Require BHP to:

• rehabilitate the proposed Roxby open pit
• dispose of tailings into the pit
• prevent liquid radioactive waste leakage from tailings piles, and
• commit to biodiversity projects that genuinely compensate for the loss of flora and fauna caused by the pit and associated operations

7. Achieve South Australia's target of reducing our ecological footprint by:

• stopping urban expansion in our most productive agricultural regions and ecologically significant areas including Gawler, Barossa Valley, Adelaide Hills  and Fleurieu Peninsula
• increasing investment in public transport so that 10 percent of journeys are by public transport by 2014
• establishing clear buffer zones and a moratorium on all coastal development up to at least 1.5 m above current sea level

8. Prevent mining activity in the mountains of the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary.

9. Develop legislation that gives private landholders the right to protect their conservation land from mining.

10. Reduce stormwater runoff from Adelaide into Gulf St Vincent to zero by 2020 by:

• increasing aquifer storage and recharge of wetland purified stormwater
• expanding the network of stormwater-fed wetlands in the metropolitan area
• capturing/reusing rainwater on site, and
• capturing stormwater on site

11. Protect biodiversity from development impacts. Where "offsets" may be proposed as a last resort, require that they:

• deliver net gains for biodiversity
• are developed through a widespread and robust consultation process
• are supported by a robust, resourced and transparent monitoring framework, and
• do not undermine existing regulatory frameworks

12. Secure an environmental flow reserve and implement a long term plan that protects the ecological assets of the Lower Lakes and Coorong by investing $400 million to buy permanent water entitlements for the Lower Lakes, Coorong and Murray Mouth.

13. Prevent further destruction of natural bushland by ensuring urban and peri urban development planning provides for bushfire safety and nature conservation from the outset.

14. Stop deep drainage in the West Avenue Range and prevent further damage to the Parrakie Wetlands and West Avenue Range Watercourse.

15. Implement a best practice, cross-government public consultation protocol by establishing a standard for genuine, meaningful and appropriate consultation that builds sustained and enduring relationships with communities within the next State Government term of office.

16. Ensure that the Environment Protection Authority is strongly and independently funded to fulfil its primary objective to protect the environment, and not be subject to a conflict of interest by relying on funding from the issuing of environmental licences.