Ten fenced conservation zones with full feral eradication. One billion trees over ten years — 100 million per year. Four planting zones. National seed bank in every state. Free national parks from Day 1. JobSeeker and NDIS workforce plants the trees. The most ambitious environmental restoration in Australian history.
Australia has one of the worst extinction records of any country on earth. We have lost more mammal species since European settlement than any other continent. We currently have over 1,800 threatened species — and the list grows every year. Without structural intervention, dozens more will be lost in the next two decades.
Feral cats kill an estimated 1.4 billion native animals in Australia every year. Foxes kill hundreds of millions more. Feral pigs destroy ground-nesting habitat and water sources across vast areas of the continent. The single biggest cause of extinction in Australia is not climate, logging, or development. It is feral predators.
Australia clears more native vegetation per year than almost any country outside the tropics. Queensland alone cleared over 395,000 hectares in a single year. The Murray-Darling has lost over 90% of its original wetlands. The cumulative effect over a century is the structural loss of habitat that drives extinction.
Ten fenced conservation zones in Australia's highest-biodiversity regions. Each sized by independent biodiversity assessment. Full feral eradication inside: cats, foxes, pigs removed and kept out. Native species breeding programs. Reintroduction where populations re-establish. The federal government builds and runs them. As eradication succeeds, each zone expands outward. The number of zones grows beyond the first term.
Inside every zone: complete removal of cats, foxes, and pigs. Maintained permanently. Where this has been done at smaller scale, species populations recover within years. The technique works. Scale and sovereign commitment are all that's missing. MMP supplies both.
Federal seed funding gets zones operational. Once established, eco-tourism opens them to visitors. World-class wildlife found nowhere else on earth. International visitors pay premium rates. Zones give them something worth the premium. Self-funding within 10 years of establishment.
One billion trees over ten years — 100 million per year. Engineering programme with defined targets, defined locations, measurable outcomes every year. Cost: $300–500M/yr from REL revenue. Four planting zones: Murray-Darling riparian, inland Queensland and NSW, arid-land corridors, and urban planting.
Murray-Darling riparian: every tree reduces erosion, improves water quality, restores fish habitat. Inland QLD and NSW: revegetation affects local rainfall within a decade. Arid-land corridors: linking remnant vegetation so wildlife stays viable. Urban: reduces heat island 3–5 degrees, cuts energy costs. Each zone is selected for highest ecological and economic return per tree planted.
The workforce is JobSeeker participants and NDIS-supported workers. Australia already pays for their time. A person who plants a tree has done something real. Schools participate from Year 1. The retired farmer, the school group, the JobSeeker, and the local elder planting together in the same park. Meaningful work produces dignity as well as ecological repair.
A national seed bank in every state and territory — eight facilities holding sovereign stocks of agricultural and native plant varieties of their region. Every major Australian agricultural variety secured. Heritage varieties preserved. Native species banked alongside food crops. A sovereign genetic resource Australia can rely on as climate, disease, and trade conditions change.
Every national park, nature reserve, and Commonwealth-managed protected area free for every Australian citizen from Day 1. A citizen paying to visit land that already belongs to them — that ends. The Commonwealth pays a Parks Access Payment to every state that opens its gates. Detail in the Environment one-pager.
One billion trees sequester carbon at scale. Riparian planting lowers water tables and reverses salinity. Urban planting reduces energy demand for cooling. Inland planting affects local rainfall patterns. The programme is ecological, fiscal, and climate policy simultaneously — and the return on investment is multi-decade and compounding.
No memos pinned to this policy yet. When an MMP memo on this topic is published, it will appear here with a short summary. The full memo index is at moralmajority.com.au/memos.html.