Bruny Island is virtually the only remaining habitat left where swift parrots can safely raise their hatchlings. Fenner School Researcher Dr Stojanovic tells his story about how his team has been trying to protect them for more than a decade.

To any informed reader, the idea of farming cold-ocean seabirds in the Australian desert is mind-numbingly silly. But this hypothetical idea helps us better understand how environmental governance in Australia has gone badly wrong.

In the long-delayed State of the Environment report released this week, there is one terrifying sentence: “Environmental degradation is now considered a threat to humanity, which could bring about societal collapses.”

Hyperbole? Sadly not.