27 June 1996

State of the Environment Report released

Lack of information threatens environment

The State of the Environment Report released today highlights the need for better information and understanding about environmental issues.

Without this information we will be unable to adequately address the management problems we face. Virginia Walsh, executive director of the Australian Library and Information Association is a member of the State of the Environment Advisory Council. Ms Walsh said 'our approach to environmental management has been analogous to a great deal of fiddling while Rome burns. While we have busied ourselves formulating environmental strategies, often based on inadequate and inaccurate information, fundamental issues have been overlooked'.

Ms Walsh welcomed the announcement by the Minister for the Environment, Senator Hill, in launching the Report today, that copies of the document would be made available through public libraries. 'There is not much point in having invested so much time, energy and money in developing this report if it is not given the widest possible audience' she said.

Ms Walsh hopes that this report, the first independent study of the state of the environment, will highlight the need for collective action to improve the condition of the environment and replenish natural resource stocks. The Great Australian Basin, one of the largest groundwater systems in the world, has suffered from a serious and possibly irreversible depletion of its water. Groundwater contamination, salinization and diversion of rivers and streams have all served to fundamentally alter the quantum and quality of our inland waters. To ensure a sustainable future, we must all make a contribution to resolving these problems. Timely, accurate information used to better inform environmental decision-making is overdue.