Crawford School of Public Policy

This week on Policy Forum Pod, David Lindenmayer joins us to discuss Australia’s dire biodiversity trajectory and what policymakers need to achieve in the five years until the next State of the Environment Report.

Why is environmental monitoring so important? How effective are biodiversity offsets in Australia and around the world? And what could the next State of the Environment Report look like in 2026 if Australia changes its trajectory on conservation and biodiversity? On this episode of Policy Forum Pod, David Lindenmayer joins Sharon Bessell and Arnagretta Hunter to discuss a hypothetical penguin farm in the Australian desert and what it reveals about our country’s ‘nothing short of disgraceful’ approach to its environment. Listen here: <https://bit.ly/3Qpamau>

David Lindenmayer is a Professor at the ANU Fenner School of Environment and Society and is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading forest and woodland ecologists and conservation biologists.

Arnagretta Hunter is the Human Futures Fellow at ANU College of Health and Medicine, a cardiologist, physician, and a Senior Clinical Lecturer at ANU Medical School.

Sharon Bessell is Professor of Public Policy and Director of both the Children’s Policy Centre and the Poverty and Inequality Research Centre at ANU Crawford School of Public Policy.

Show notes | The following were mentioned during this episode:

A penguin farm in the Australian desert: a thought experiment that reveals the flaws in our environment laws, The Conversation, (2022).

Accounting for water use by wildlife–conceptual and practical issues and a case study from Botswana, Water Resources and Economics, (2017).

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