State of the Environment: Why the Coalition hid major report from voters

From a looming increase to household power bills to a major delay at Snowy 2.0, information which voters were entitled to know was kept from them in the weeks and months before the federal election.

But of all the cynical moves perhaps none was more cynical than its decision to withhold the release of the latest five-yearly State of the Environment report.

Former environment minister Sussan Ley was within her rights to keep the report card under wraps until after the May 21 poll, thanks to the precious few sitting days scheduled in the first months of this year.

But surely Australians were entitled the know what was becoming of their environment before casting their vote?

Ms Ley and her government clearly didn't think so.

Now we know why.

The report, which Ms Ley's successor Tanya Plibersek will finally release on Tuesday, makes from grim reading.

The 274-page report [and that's just the overview] paints the picture of a natural world buckling under the combined pressure of climate change, habitat loss, invasive species, mining and pollution.

It's confirmation - if more was needed - that the planet is warming, our animals are dying, land is degrading and the Great Barrier Reef, or at least parts of it, is on the brink.

The report doesn't attribute blame to the former government.

That wasn't the job of the team of independent experts who put it together.

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But its many pages are filled with uncomfortable truths and evidence of inaction and neglect, which can be sheeted home to the former regime.

The contents of Page 85 alone might explain the Coalition's refusal to promptly release the report.

The section includes the uncomfortable truth that Australia is among the world's largest per-person emitters.

Then comes the sting in the tail. The report questions if, on current trends, Australia would be able meet the Coalition's target of cutting emissions by 26-28 per cent by 2030.

That's the same target Scott Morrison and his ministers would regularly boast Australia was on track to comfortably meet and beat.

Hiding the report mattered little in the end, as voters demanding stronger action on climate change turfed the Coalition from office.

Labor is now in government, and thus in charge of arresting the environmental decline so starkly laid out in the report.

Ms Plibersek isn't mincing her words, describing the report as a "shocking document" which "tells a story of crisis and decline in Australia's environment".

The new minister has promised to confront the findings rather than bury her head in the sand.

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Bleak as it might be, the report does offer some solutions for healing a scarred environment. There's a clear and passionate call to embrace the Indigenous knowledge and practices used to care for country for tens of thousands of years.

Ms Plibersek's vow to put the environment "back on the priority list" has been welcomed.

But she too is about to confront some uncomfortable questions.

Let's say Ms Plibersek commits to reversing the environmental decline. How does she reconcile that promise with her government's support for the coal and gas sectors?

We won't have to wait long for some answers.

The new minister fronts the National Press Club at 12.30pm.