Franking Credits for Change
Announcement posted by Biolinks Alliance 29 May 2019
The federal election might be over, but one Central Victorian environmental organisation is keeping the conversation about franking credits on the agenda.
Biolinks Alliance is calling on disillusioned Australians, who may have been prepared to lose their franking credits in this month’s federal election, to donate them to the environment.
The organisation has set up a crowdfunding goal of $50,000 which represents 0.001% of the $5 billion that were spent on franking credits in 2018.
Dr Sophie Bickford, Executive Director of the Biolinks Alliance said that “Three more years of inaction by our Federal government will have real consequences. Climate change isn’t an abstract concept anymore, it’s very real, and the impact of it on threatened species is already playing out in Victoria and across the country.”
Platypus, Brush-tailed Phascogale (or Tuan), Greater Gliders and Barking Owls are just four of the 198 native animals under threat in Central Victoria. Another, the Regent Honeyeater is Australia’s most threatened songbird. Once common throughout the south-east (including suburban Sydney and Melbourne), the population has crashed since the 1960’s due to extensive land clearing. It is now on the verge of extinction, listed as critically endangered under national and international legislation. Best available data suggest that fewer than 400 individuals remain and population decline is ongoing.
Biolinks Alliance is working from the grassroots to turn this grim story around so our children and grandchildren can see Platypus in our creeks and rivers.
Protecting the planet is the best legacy that people can leave for their kids and grandkids.
Biolinks Alliance is ensuring that the significant momentum there is for community-driven conservation on public and private land in central Victoria is supported, coordinated and amplified - to restore the landscape at scale and address species extinction.
Dr Bickford said the money raised will go towards the continued work of the organisation. “We’re looking down the barrel of another 3 years of hand-to-mouth existence and, frankly, we're not sure we’re going to make it without this support. And there are plenty of other organisations in the same boat.”
Find out more about the #franksgiving campaign, and make a tax-deductible donation at https://chuffed.org/project/franksgiving