In this op-ed piece, ACT Greens Member for Ginninderra, Jo Clay, argues the ACT Human Rights Act must recognise the right to a healthy environment:
Every Canberran should have the right to a healthy environment.
Our environment is everything. It gives us the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat. It is where we play and connect and unwind. It is our home and our beauty and our peace.
Quite apart from any human being, our environment is precious. I take great comfort in the fact that long after I’m gone, the Earth will still be here. I want to preserve it for my daughter and hers after that. But it also exists in its own right. I hope one day in the future, this planet will be healthier than it is today.
But in the ACT, our Human Rights Act doesn’t yet recognise the human right to a healthy environment.
I grew up in the middle of a debate about human rights. Why didn’t Australia have an Act? Did we need one? What exactly did our Constitution protect and why did we need so many lawyers and judges to tell us what we knew to be true?
I was really proud when the ACT was the first Australian jurisdiction to pass a Human Rights Act. We didn’t wait for more Federal filibustering. We just got on with the job. I was even happier when Victoria and Queensland followed our lead.
The ACT was first in Australia, but we are not world leaders. Human rights law is more established in other countries and most United Nations members have already recognised the right to a healthy environment.
In October last year, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution recognising the human right to a healthy environment. I often find global politics baffling and distant, but this was simple. The UN said protecting our environment underpinned other human rights for current and future generations.
It is not one more right we need to recognise. It’s the foundation for everything. We cannot live healthy lives unless our environment is healthy.
We need to act now. We’re in a climate emergency, an extinction crisis, a waste crisis. Water is growing scarce. Urban development puts pressure on our wild places. Every day, we make choices about what we need and what we should protect. A healthy environment is not simply one more choice. It’s the basis for every good choice.
The Greens campaigned on this ahead of the 2020 election. We included it in our Parliamentary and Governing Agreement with Labor. There is an amazing body of work developing here in the ACT about what this right could look like and how it will recognise and draw on Indigenous local knowledge.
On Thursday 11 February, I will call on the ACT Legislative Assembly to investigate entrenching the right to a healthy environment in our Human Rights Act. I am really excited about this. I can’t wait to see our Government work with the community, environmental experts, human rights experts and our Indigenous community to get this into place.
Jo Clay is the ACT Greens member for Ginninderra and the ACT Greens spokesperson for circular economy and parks and conservation.
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