As many of you know, I have worked in environmental protection for five decades under both Liberal and ALP governments. Since the introduction of the NSW Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, every government has faced lobbying to weaken environmental assessment and public consultation — and every time, communities have pushed back. Now, the Minns Government has introduced a new Bill into Parliament — and it is the worst yet. I urge you, your friends, and local groups to intervene to protect the interests of both the community and the environment.   Take action and email: Planning Minister Paul Scully [email protected] Tell your local MP to stop the Bill  

Sydney is heading for a climate emergency on its doorstep. The Federal Government’s National Climate Risk Assessment, released on 15 September 2025, makes it clear: our cities will heat up drastically, sea levels will rise, and the risk of flooding will escalate. Yet the NSW Government continues to  grant new rights to developers and urban sprawl—pouring fuel on the climate fire—while failing to deliver the most basic adaptation measure Sydney needs: a comprehensive Blue-Green Grid.  

Greater Sydney Parklands: review urges the government take ‘immediate action’ on Blue-Green Grid

The future success of Victoria’s Container Deposit Scheme hinges on improving transparency of return rates, increasing the refund to 20c, phasing out inconvenient refund points and including wine and spirit bottles, our newest report discovers.

In a welcome move on Tuesday night,  the Hon. Penny Sharpe, NSW Minister for the Environment introduced the Product Lifecycle Responsibility Bill to the NSW Parliament. This bill will establish a framework to regulate product stewardship over a range of environmentally damaging products. The Minister gave a clear indication batteries would be the first priority for regulation.

Manly Cove, one of Sydney Harbour’s most iconic swimming spots, has been revealed to be a microplastic hotspot, highlighting a widespread issue impacting popular coastal areas. According to a long-running survey conducted by AUSMAP, a project of Total Environment Centre, swimmers here are immersed in a soup of plastic pollution.

Alongside the Total Environment Centre and the Sydney Basin Koala Network called for independent oversight of Transport NSW’s Koala management practices which are consistently falling short of their own published standards, contributing to record Koala road deaths in South West Sydney. 

Yesterday's meeting of state and federal Environment Ministers was in disarray as Queensland, under its new LNP government, refused to take part in any national action on the circular economy including to reduce the environmental and economic costs from wasteful packaging, PFAS and plastics.   

With Australia’s environment ministers meeting in a few days, peak groups representing Australia’s waste management and resource recovery industry and the environment movement have come together to demand urgent mandatory regulation of all end-of-life (EoL) batteries, which, under current practices, pose serious risks to the environment and resource recovery sectors.

50-plus years is a long time to be engaged in the battle to protect the environment that we all depend on and share with an incredible array of animals and plants. That’s how long TEC has been working and we tell our story in our just released and beautifully designed Impact Report.

Environmental groups have called for an urgent rescue plan from land clearing, urban sprawl and roadkills, for the endangered Koala colonies of the Sydney Basin, at a meeting with Judith Hannan MP, President of the Parliamentary Friends of the Koalas.

Our investigation into voluntary battery recycling under the failing battery stewardship scheme, B-cycle, identified many free rider producers evading responsibility for battery waste, and B-cycle participants, more often than not, failing to promote the scheme to their consumers.