Farrer MP Sussan Ley responds to State of the Environment Report

The Farrer MP on Monday told Sky News she had received the State of the Environment Report, which new Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek made public last week. It had been handed to the Morrison government in December.

Ms Ley noted she had commissioned the report and appointed the authors.

"It was well and truly within the statutory time frames and guidelines and not unusual at all in terms of the timing of its release, which was required 14 sitting days after being tabled," she said.

"So had we been returned to government, I would similarly, or the new government would similarly, have been releasing the report."

Last week Ms Ley declined to answer questions from The Border Mail about why she did not release the report and whether it was to do with the coming federal election.

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Wodonga Albury Towards Climate Health member Bruce Key had described Ms Ley's withholding of the report as "terrible".

Ms Ley on Monday defended the Coalition government's environmental work, particularly its investment in tackling feral species.

"I'm proud of our record on the environment and $1 billion to protect the reef, $100 million of ocean leadership, $200 million to recover from bushfires," she said.

"I'm not going to get into the politics of this, but I am going to say that we absolutely did what we needed to do to protect our beautiful, fragile Australian environment."

Ms Ley said the report reflected a long period of time since European settlement and the effect that's had on native wildlife.

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