Direct funding for environmental protection in this year’s budget is just 0.3% of total budget expenses. Alarmingly, it then falls off dramatically over the forward estimates. Such low levels of direct investment in the environment used to be a feature of Coalition rather than Labor governments.
Tue 12 May 2026 21.30 AEST
Photo: AAP Image/Darren England
Direct funding for environmental protection in this year’s budget is just 0.3% of total budget expenses. Alarmingly, it then falls off dramatically over the forward estimates. As the chart below shows, such low levels of direct investment in the environment used to be a feature of Coalition rather than Labor governments.
Under the Rudd/Gillard government, spending on the environment increased to a high of 1.1% of government expenses. Put another way, in 2013, the government were spending over 3 times as much on the environment as a percentage of the budget as a whole. For every $100 of our tax dollars spent, only 30 cents goes toward protection for the environment.
If ever there was a decade to reduce care for country, this last one wasn’t it. Australia is a biologically diverse natural nirvana. Over 80% of our mammals and reptiles are found nowhere else on Earth. Iconic ‘Australian only’ favourites include the platypus, koala, wombat, kangaroo, and quokka.
But since 2015, Australia’s rate of mammal extinction has accelerated and is now the highest in the world. The 2019/20 bushfires killed or displaced an estimated 1 to 3 billion native animals. The reef suffered multiple mass bleaching events, including the first on record during a La Niña year in 2022. Our environments capacity to provide a bountiful home for human and economic activity is collapsing.
Whilst threats to nature are immense, the solution for governments can be simple. Stop or limit activities that destroy ecosystems and spend money and time restoring what has already been damaged. This budget does the opposite of both those things.
The Albanese government’s abandonment of the environment is a break from ALP tradition. We can argue how effective or otherwise the Rudd ALP government was at protecting the environment but at least there was ambition. In 2007, then Prime Minister Rudd cited climate change as ‘the great moral challenge of our generation’ and opined that “there is no plan B, there is no other planet any of us can escape to.”
Tonight, the Treasurer’s budget speech exchanged moral clarity for development certainty.
The Government is accelerating environmental, low-risk foreign investment, resources and telecommunications approvals to make it easier to launch new projects. It is delivering stronger environmental outcomes through more than $500 million to implement approval reforms that deploy AI, cut duplication with states and fund more bioregional plans and strategic assessments. It is also strengthening the Investor Front Door to help nationally significant projects.
Budgets spell out priorities, and under this government, environmental protection has been poorly budgeted for.
Leanne Minshull is the co-CEO of the Australia Institute
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It's true that some taxes grow and while others fade away. Here's a look at some of the 'smaller taxes' by how much they are expected to grow over the next 4 years. What's striking is that while Australia is in the middle of a gas price boom, the PRRT is still expected to fall by a third.
We know the amount raised from the beer excise is greater than the PRRT, but the bank levy is also bigger than the PRRT. It's little wonder the head of the Commonwealth Bank has twigged that gas companies are taking the piss.
