Australia is part of an exclusive club of 17 countries that are so biodiverse they are considered “megadiverse”.

Despite covering less than 10 per cent of the world’s area, megadiverse nations such as Australia, Brazil and Madagascar support more than 70 per cent of global biodiversity.

Australia is home to 600,000 to 700,000 native species – many of which are found nowhere else in the world.

Yet Australia has been called the “global epicentre of extinctions”, based on our poor track record since 1788. As of August this year, 2118 species of our native species and 103 ecological communities were listed as threatened under national environmental law.

The Albanese government wants to change this; it has not only talked a lot about a “nature positive” agenda since it won power, it has also significantly increased its spending on the environment. This week Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek is co-hosting the Global Nature Positive Summit in Sydney with her NSW counterpart Penny Sharpe.

Yet the government’s slow progress in reforming the Howard-era Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act has left many in the environment movement frustrated. These are the federal environmental laws declared “not fit for purpose” by respected businessman Graeme Samuel, and which Plibersek applied in her recent approval of three massive coal mines.

The problem is, you can’t be nature positive unless you first stop being nature negative.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek is hosting the Global Nature Positive Summit this week.Credit: Oscar Colman

Plibersek has said she wants to set up a “nature repair market”, which would be somewhat like a carbon market but to fund environmental projects such as mangrove restoration or hunting feral cats. Such schemes are already operating in the private sector.

From an economic perspective, this idea has merit as long as there is oversight to........

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