Australia’s next government must tackle our collapsing ecosystems and extinction crisis

Australia’s remarkable animals, plants and ecosystems are world-renowned, and rightly so.Unfortunately, our famous ecosystems are not OK. Many are hurtling towards collapse, threatening even iconic species like the koala, platypus and the numbat. More and more species are going extinct, with over 100 since British colonisation. That means Australia has one of the worst conservation records in the world.This represents a monumental government failure. Our leaders are failing in their duty of care to the environment. Yet so far, the election campaign has been unsettlingly silent on threatened species.Here are five steps our next government should take