The news this week that Monash University is dissolving the Monash Sustainable Development Institute (MSDI) has shaken me.

The Master’s I got from Monash changed my life; changed the very way I think. People who have gotten to know me over the past few years may be surprised to learn I’d never questioned capitalism or any other underpinnings of society before I started this course in 2018. But through the brilliant lecturers and the readings they set, I slowly came to realise there were other ways of organising society that may be better.

Unfortunately, I see the refusal to maintain MSDI as part of a broader trend within society, and I’m bracing for more like it in the coming years.

There is, of course, the shitshow that is the US under Trump. All kinds of terrible things are happening over there; ICE is roaming the streets detaining and deporting random people from all walks of life for the crime of not being white. Trans and gender diverse people are being criminalised and forced back into closets that do not fit us. Environmental protections are being dismantled, so polluters of all the chemicals of the rainbow can get away with doing whatever they want with their toxic refuse, to whomever they want. These issues are interlinked, as polluted neighbourhoods are more likely to be communities of colour or queer.

While Australia is not America, it nonetheless has a significant influence on our politics. It shouldn’t; Trump is hugely unpopular here, Australians do not trust the US to act responsibly anymore and believe we should act more independently. Our PM refuses to accept this reality and has desperately been trying to have a meeting with Trump to hold onto the relationship. For all his efforts, he has been shunned twice. I don’t think Albanese being ignored by him is a bad thing, personally, and I imagine the Australians who want more independence from the US would agree. But for some reason our media class have been kicking up a stink about it.

Alongside America’s unwarranted sway over our political class is Abundance, the milquetoast bestseller that has been casting a pall over Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ economic policies. The thrust of this book is that we have the ability to satisfy all of our needs so long as we do away with pesky bureaucracy, including environmental protections. If we sweep planetary boundaries under a big enough rug, they’ll get trapped there and can’t bother us again.

In the background of all this have been the Albanese government’s environmental commitments. Experts were calling for a minimum of a 75% reduction by 2035. The government refused to listen to this, instead settling on 62-70%. And let’s be real, a target with a range is effectively a target for the lowest part of that range: 62%. Not enough. Part of the reason it’s this low is due to projected data centre growth for generative AI, as per advice from the Climate Change Authority (it’s on page 36). For more on why generative AI requires so much power, read my evidence-based rant.

The government is also preparing to ram through changes to our main environmental conservation legislation, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act. The Act as it currently exists does little to protect the environment and only exists as a checkbox for development approvals. There are no consequences for ministers failing to act on species recovery plans in a timely manner, as evidenced by the absurd timelines, lack of plans for some species or straight up deleting them.

Notably, the 2020 Samuel Review of the EPBC Act, required by law, did not recommend climate change be added as a consideration for developments under the Act:

Successive Australian Governments have elected to adopt specific policy mechanisms to implement their commitments to reduce emissions. The Review agrees that these specific mechanisms, not the EPBC Act, are the appropriate way to place limits on greenhouse gas emissions.

This all adds up to a future I don’t like. This Labor government is going to keep building so we can have a faux abundance, and will attempt to sweep away anything that gets in its way. It ignores complements to its construction policies which would make sure all its new houses aren’t bought by the handful of people who already own many of them. They’ve refused to add a climate trigger to the EPBC Act, which they also failed to implement when the Act was reviewed in 2010 under Gillard-Rudd.

It’s only a good idea when they’re in Opposition, apparently — yes, you’re reading that right. That is a 2005 amendment to the EPBC Act to add a climate trigger, not just from Labor, but from Albanese specifically. The Samuel report gives them the political ammunition they need to avoid adding a climate trigger, hypocrisy be damned. It only works so long as they ignore the part that says they need other mechanisms to reduce emissions (spoiler: we don’t have any of those that work). I’m tipping the media won’t point that out.

Looking at their current commitments, and the fact that four months ago our Assistant Minister for Productivity literally gave a speech called “The abundance agenda for Australia,” I expect this to continue. They’re going to cut environmental regulations to make it easier to build the shitty houses Australia is infamous for. They’re not going to look after our endangered species unless dragged over the courts to do so, and they will not make any substantial improvements to our environmental laws. With a nonexistent opposition and weak media, there is no one in Canberra who will force them to change. They might do some deals with the Greens, but I would put money on them doing deals with the remnants of the Coalition instead, where they have the ability to do so.

I fully expect that the environmental degradation will continue until we’re reminded of why these regulations existed in the first place. And given the rise of authoritarianism across the West, I fully expect it will get a lot worse before it starts to get better.

I used to be optimistic about this stuff, but over the past decade, as I’ve watched decision makers dither over issues that have been around since before I was born, I’ve gotten cynical. I am on a never-ending quest to try to make the world a little kinder than it was before I got here, sustained by the networks I’m in and seeing so many other people around me doing the same.

On a smaller, more personal level, it’s infuriating. All of it. I’m looking for work after having been dumped in the middle of a white collar recession, so of course, there’s not much out there. My degrees are in ecology and conservation biology, and in the environment and sustainability. Attacks on this field mean I’ll have even less work available from the slim pickings on offer.

We need environmental protections now more than ever. The seventh of nine planetary boundaries has just been crossed. The climate crisis is making everything worse, and Western countries are refusing to do our fair share. In Australia specifically, we have the aforementioned species recovery plans, which would create so many jobs for my field if the government started acting on them. Why was my undergraduate ecology degree so heavily subsidised if the government wasn’t going to give us the lowest hanging fruit for work?

If you want to support MSDI and are a current or former Monash student, sign this petition by an intrepid student currently doing my old Master’s course. If you’re not, share it with the Monash alumni you know – there will be some, we’re everywhere.

The only thing that will force the government to change course would be if their jobs are on the line. If you can, join activist groups in your area and help out. Even something as simple as taking minutes, running a delivery, drafting an agenda or email, or anything else is one less thing that professional activists have to do.