A decade ago, an Australian report outlined changes the country must make to halt the decline and loss of species (1), but the reforms were never implemented. In the years since, most threatened species have continued to decline, and at least three have gone extinct (2, 3). Since the year 2000, more than 7.7 million hectares of threatened species habitat have been destroyed (4). Last month, the Australian government released a report that examined Australia's ongoing failure to tackle the species extinction crisis and offered recommendations (5). Australia's minister for the environment has committed to work through the full detail of the recommendations (6), but there are already worrying signs that they will be ignored. The Federal Government of Australia must protect and preserve nature as required by international agreements (7). Without fundamental policy reforms, Australia—a megadiverse country home to about 600,000 species (8)—risks mass species extinction.