A landmark Federal Court case is set to benefit a threatened local critter, as well as many other species in peril around the country.
The Wilderness Society, represented by Environmental Justice Australia, successfully argued a court settlement with Environment Minister Murray Watt and the federal government, arguing they had failed to create mandatory recovery plans for a number of threatened species.
Biodiversity policy and campaign manager for the Wilderness Society Sam Szoke-Burke said the case has achieved an important precedent, namely that making these recovery plans is not optional.
“When in place, the recovery plans will have legal heft when the government assesses future development projects — it won’t be able to ignore them,” he said.
“The community will also be watching to make sure the plans accurately describe the key threats to each species’ survival, and that the government adequately funds and implements them,”
“All of these elements will be needed to enable recovery of species that have been neglected by government after government.”
Greater gliders, found in the forests of the Yarra Ranges, are one of four species that will have a recovery plan in place by July 2026, alongside ghost bats, sandhill dunnarts and Australian lungfish. The greater glider was reclassified from vulnerable to endangered in 2022, having first been classified as threatened in 2016.
Ms Szoke-Burke said the Wilderness Society are elated that the greater glider will finally have a recovery plan after years of government delay.
“It’s an iconic and well-loved species that relies on mature native forests that are often smashed by deforestation,” he said.
“The greater glider’s recovery must also be premised on the removal of harmful deforestation loopholes in federal laws that allow logging and deforestation to occur without federal oversight,”
“Our supporters have been mobilising across the continent to urge the Environment Minister to close these loopholes as part of the current reform process.”
As a result of the ruling, recovery plans will no longer expire after a period of time (previously having been considered expired after 10 years, known as ‘sunsetting’) and will now only be removed when a species is no longer listed as threatened and well on its way to recovery.
A government spokesperson said the Albanese Government is on track to deliver recovery plans for the Australian Lungfish, Sandhill Dunnart, Greater Glider (southern and central) and Ghost Bat.
“Plans are currently in their mandatory public consultation period for the Australian Lungfish and Sandhill Dunnart,” they said.
“Public consultation on plans for the Greater Glider (southern and central) and Ghost Bat will be conducted well before the agreed timeframe for the plans’ completion.”
“The Albanese Government is investing over $600 million in actions that are directly contributing to the recovery of threatened species and ecological communities.”
An Auditor-General report in 2022 into the management of threatened species and ecological communities found that only two per cent of recovery plans were completed within the statutory time frame since July 2013, making the removal of sunsetting a crucial component to ensuring these plans are seen through to completion. The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water website has been updated to reflect this.
President of Warburton Environment Nic Fox said the group feels a huge sense of relief, but also deep disappointment.
“This outcome shows that the law can still work to protect nature when communities hold governments to account but it really shouldn’t be up to community groups and volunteers to force the government to follow its own laws,” she said.
“The Court has made it crystal clear that recovery plans are not optional, they are a legal duty, this precedent should push governments to take their responsibilities seriously and deliver recovery plans on time, so species aren’t left waiting while their habitats disappear,”
“It’s a game-changer for species like the greater glider, they’ve been listed as needing a recovery plan since 2016, but one has never been delivered.”
Protection of the greater glider was a talking point in May 2024 when bushfire mitigation works carried out by Forest Fire Management Victoria in the Yarra Ranges National Park resulted in the death of a glider.
Ms Fox said the greater glider recovery plan must focus on protecting and restoring habitat, especially hollow-bearing trees that gliders need for nesting.
“It should also address stopping logging and deforestation in glider strongholds, securing climate refuges, and ensuring connectivity between forest patches so gliders can survive fires and adapt to change, strong community and scientific monitoring programs should also be part of it,” she said.
“Protecting forests for greater gliders will also help Leadbeater’s Possums, sooty owls, yellow-bellied gliders, and countless other hollow-dependent species,”
“These forests are home to a whole community of threatened wildlife, when you protect one, you protect many.”
