EPBC Act reform has passed... but the shark culling loophole remains

Last week, the long-awaited EPBC Act reforms were finally passed in the Senate.

Despite 165,000 signatures collected on our Change.org page, overwhelming community support, countless expert recommendations, and a clear opportunity to modernise outdated policies, the final bill did not include the removal of Section 43B.

This archaic loophole that allows the QLD and NSW shark culling programs to kill unlimited amounts of protected wildlife without any formal environmental assessment, oversight or guardrails - will remain.

When questioned directly about this decision by Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, Environment Minister Murray Watt said:

“There were only so many things that we could do in these reforms and simply delivering the recommendations of the Samuel Review was a pretty herculean task in its own right.”

And when pressed whether the government would commit to a pathway to reviewing the shark nets or their exemption:

“No, the government has no plans to make any changes in that regard.”

This confirms what we feared: shark nets (and other activities exploiting this enormous loophole) are not a priority for the federal government, even though they knowingly allow the unlimited killing of endangered species like turtles, dolphins, and grey nurse sharks, all under the shield of Section 43B.

But here’s what they’re not telling you:

We have strong evidence that these state shark culling programs were not operating lawfully when the EPBC Act came into effect in 2000 – and therefore should never have qualified for this s43B exemption. They might well be using it illegally...Envoy Foundation is now pursuing this angle with a law firm, as part of a broader push to remove shark nets from Australian waters.

The fight is far from over. If anything, this result only proves how critical it is that we keep pushing.

The government may have chosen to look away, but we won’t...