I'm a conservationist because of Rex Hunt. You know that 1970s Australian Rules footballer who later made a career as a fishing guru and with his over-the-top shouty footy commentary.
When I was a kid of eight or nine, weekends would involve being dragged out of bed pre-dawn by my dad to put the boat in the water of Port Phillip Bay. I enjoyed the fishing for the sport and got a thrill out of seeing what fish was on the end of the line on the rare occasion we got one to the surface. On weekends I would pore over Hunt's Fishing Port Phillip Bay and from it I would learn the behaviour of all the fish that were fit to eat, where to catch them and what tactics to use.
Reading this guide and others like it was my introduction to ecology. They filled me with a sense of wonder for what lived under the surface, but also a sense of anger and loss for what once was. They would often mention what sorts of fish you used to be able to catch in a particular location and how much bigger and more common they used to be. They documented the decline of our rivers, bays and oceans. It didn't feel right that we had impacted our environment so much that I couldn't catch huge snapper or salmon like the old blokes used to.
It's fair to say this was not a radical entry into conservation — it's a pretty conservative position to not want to stuff up your environment so that you can still catch fish. Theodore Roosevelt, one of the earliest exponents of conservation from a conservative point of view put it like this: 'Of all the questions which can come before this nation, short of the actual preservation of its existence in a great war, there is none which compares in importance with the great central task of leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us.'
The most prominent self-described conservative in Australia, former prime minister Tony Abbott, has expressed many views on conservation and on the merits of addressing climate change, but none of these views could be argued as coming from a position of conservatism that Teddy Roosevelt could agree with.
In echoes of his effort while prime minister to establish a global coalition of like-minded countries against climate change action, Abbott recently addressed a UK forum where he questioned not whether climate change was real, but whether it was actually doing more good for the world than bad.
This sort of perspective isn't consistent with how previous conservative Australian political figures have dealt with issues such as climate change and the environment. Robert Menzies had enormous faith in scientists and grew CSIRO funding year-on-year. Liberal prime minister John Gorton stood up to the Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen when he tried to give oil companies free reign to drill on the Great Barrier Reef. In 1990, Liberal shadow minister Chris Puplick developed a detailed and ambitious climate change and environment policy that would be derided as a greenie-plot if it was proposed today.
"There are significant overlaps in relation to conservative values and conservation but we are in an era where political figures that self-identify as conservative are compelled to take an anti-conservation position."
When he was environment minister, Liberal Senator Robert Hill essentially took the elements that Australia had agreed to at the Rio Earth Summit and turned them into a comprehensive set of laws and policies that are substantively still in place today, including the National Heritage Trust, the National Reserve System, marine reserves, and the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Another Howard-era environment minister, Senator Ian Campbell, developed such a love of whales that he joined the advisory board of radical activists Sea Shepherd.
There are significant overlaps in relation to conservative values and conservation but it appears we are in an era where political figures that self-identify as conservative are compelled to take an anti-conservation position.
The value of self-reliance is incredibly well-aligned with conservation and climate action. Australians have managed to embrace the notion of water conservation with great success, through government interventions and through personal actions such as installing water tanks. Yet somehow, the notion of energy or electricity conservation hasn't been as successful, though individuals installing solar panels have been one of the better results. Self-reliance implies both that we can deal with whatever the world throws us through our resilience and ingenuity, and that we are better off by getting on with it, rather than waiting for solutions to appear from elsewhere. Former NSW Liberal MP Michael Richardson was an exponent of this approach and authored a number of books on the subject.
Like me with my fishing guidebooks, many conservationists have been driven to act through a sense of nostalgia for what once was, combined with a sense of civic duty. After I got my fix of fishing guides, I joined the youth-focused conservation group, the Gould League, to get my dose of nature. I loved getting the stickers and books, posters and badges, and hearing about all the great activities that were being done to save our wildlife.
Through the Gould League I felt a connection with kids like me who participated in similar activities almost a century earlier. Others have developed a connection to nature and a willingness to help through groups such as cubs, scouts and guides. This similar spirit can be seen in landcare groups and bushcare groups across the country, largely found in Liberal and National Party voting electorates.
Australia's environment is unequivocally in decline. Our climate is changing for the worse and it is impacting our natural environment and our way of life. Yet self-described conservative politicians have increasingly and aggressively opposed any policies that would address these issues.
It's hard to see whether the current anti-science, anti-environment phase of right-wing politics in Australia will be an aberration or become the norm. However I don't believe these views are as unanimous among those with conservative values as is currently on display from the current crop of right-wing politicians. Australia would be well-served if some conservative leaders in Australia stood up for climate change action and conservation. If they did, I think they would find they weren't alone.
Tim Beshara is nature conservation professional currently working in politics as a media adviser for a Greens Senator. You can find him on twitter as @tim_beshara