$6 million for conservation handed back to Treasury
The Australian Greens were shocked to learn that $6 million set aside for protecting biodiversity hotspots has not been spent and will be handed back to Federal Treasury. This was revealed in Senate Estimates on the 19th February 2008.
This $6M was meant to buy high conservation value properties in Australia’s biodiversity ‘hotspots’. Senator Rachael Siewert said there were clear directions to spend this money and there was no shortage of properties and leaseholds that could be purchased. The Howard Government was just pig-headedly anti-environment.