National Human Rights Consultation Submission 

AGWW-7QTDHH 

Name: John Leonard 

Submission Text: 

I’m sure that within the next decade or so the human rights of
 
Australian citizens will be protected by some legislative or constitutional
 
instrument. Although human rights are important they are not as important
 
as protecting human’s relationship with the natural world. For without the
 
natural world, humans cannot exist.
 

 
What I think needs to be enforced is a Charter of Environmental Integrity
 
for Australia. The details would have to be agreed by consultation and
 
discussion, but I think that the obvious points to include in this would
 
be:
 

 

1.A commitment to bring Australia’s population down to a sustainable
 
level—expert opinion would indicate around 10 million.
 
2.A commitment to preserve all higher (ie vertebrate) animal species and
 
plant species, and ecosystems, currently extant in Australia, by expanding
 
and managing the National Park system, with a level of funding to ensure
 
that proper management can occur.
 
3.A commitment to protect all Australia’s old-growth forest, and restrict
 
logging to plantations.
 
4.A commitment to making Australia’s industry carbon neutral as quickly as
 
possible.
 

 
ps the fact that your range of options for topics within this area does not
 
include Environment shows how limited official imagination is, and how
 
necessary the concept of Environmental Integrity is. 
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