Australian Environment Minister Bows Out

CANBERRA, Australia, July 13, 2004 (ENS) - Australia's Environment Minister David Kemp is leaving politics and will not be running in an election that is likely to be called shortly.

"My reasons are purely personal," Kemp said in his official announcement today. "I still have a young family and I have come to the view that it would be better over the next few years if I were not absent to the extent that politics would require."

Kemp has been one of Liberal Prime Minister John Howard's most loyal colleagues, a member of the Howard government since 1996. He held the education portfolio before he took responsibility for environment in 2001.

Dr. David Kemp has been a minister in the Howard Government since 1996. Here he addresses an audience on his first day in the environment portfolio, November 28, 2001.(Photo courtesy Office of the Minister)

Greenpeace Acting Campaigns Manager, Stephen Campbell, said, "The environment, and in particular the pressing issue of climate change, is a key issue of public concern for the coming election. It’s a shame that this government is now in an even weaker position to tackle this serious issue."

"Over its three terms, this government has been unwilling to tackle the big environmental issues like global warming," Campbell said. "Now this government’s lame duck environmental policies are officially matched by a lame duck Minister."

Kemp has worked to convince his Cabinet colleagues that the government should adopt a mandatory renewable energy target of at least two percent, but the Howard energy and environment statement, announced in mid-June, did not feature such a target.

“Having been rolled on the renewable energy target, Kemp is on his way out the door," Campbell said. "And the environment is still without an effective advocate in the government."

But Kemp denied that his resignation was due to this defeat within the Cabinet and insisted he was stepping down for family reasons.

Environmental groups and the Labor Opposition criticized the energy and environment statement, which they claim was too heavily reliant on coal power generation.

Kemp's tenure has been marked by increasing protection for the world's longest reef, the Great Barrier Reef, which last month was closed to commercial and recreational fishing over one-third of its area.

Last week, Kemp announced $10.85 million in government funding over the next two years for the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan to protect the reef from land based pollution.

But Senator Bob Brown, leader of the Australian Greens, said Kemp has "failed his responsibilities to the nation's environment." "On major issues like logging of forests, global warming and protection of species, this ministry has been an outstanding and deplorable failure," Brown said.

Brown, who represents the island state of Tasmania, faulted the retiring minister for expanding "to record levels export woodchipping from Tasmania's iconic forests."

Rather than prohibiting woodchipping in public forests, Kemp has gone the voluntary route to encourage owners of Tasmanian forested lands to protect them. On June 30, he awarded 22 landholders in Tasmania a total of $850,000 in Federal funding after they signed conservation covenants under the Private Forest Reserve Programme. The voluntary program provides private landowners with assistance and a financial incentive to protect forests on their land.

Brown blames Kemp for record levels of greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power stations and refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, and for failure to get behind Australia's world-leading solar technology.

On Kemp's watch, the Howard government sided with the United States in declining to ratify the Kyoto Protocol that would have limited Australian emissions of greenhouse gases to eight percent above 1990 emission levels. Still, in public statements, Kemp has used the Kyoto benchmark as a measure of Australian progress towards controlling climate change.

"This government is the worst environmental performer in modern history," Senator Brown said, blaming Kemp for approving the Burnett River dam in Queensland, flooding habitats of at least five rare and endangered species, and for "attempts to foist a nuclear waste dump on South Australia."

Campbell called on Prime Minister Howard to announce who will take on the environment portfolio after Kemp’s departure, should this government be re-elected.

The Australian Labor Party's shadow environment minister, Kelvin Thompson, did not have a statement on Kemp's resignation.