The state government-approved upgrade of the Pacific Highway through koala habitat south of Ballina is helping drive the iconic marsupial to extinction on the north coast, according to the NSW Greens.
Ballina MP Tamara Smith and Greens environment spokesperson, Dr Mehreen Faruqi MLC, have called on the Baird government to ‘get serious about protecting koalas, especially on the north coast’.
Their call follows NSW Labor this week also slamming the coalition for a lack of funding and government neglect which could drive the north coast koala population to extinction.
The Greens say that while koala numbers, especially on the north coast, are plummeting, just $120,000 will be spent on protecting koalas in NSW this year.
(Labor says the Baird government had cut funding for koala protection by 75 per cent and was only spending just $45,000 in 2015-16 financial year to protect koala populations despite koala numbers dropping by a third in just 20 years.)
Dr Faruqi said that ‘despite calling the koala an iconic species, the Baird government has admitted in Budget Estimates to allocating just $120,000 on koala conservation this year, even as NSW has lost a third of its koalas in the last few decades’.
‘By comparison they have spent almost four times that on introducing horse-riding in pristine wilderness areas,’ she said.
‘NSW koalas are under threat, and the Baird government is doing virtually nothing to stop this.
‘The government can’t have it both ways – it can’t pretend to care about the survival of koalas as a species whilst at the same time approving fossil fuel mining and infrastructure projects that devastate koala habitat.
‘For years now the government has been warned that its disregard for the environment is having real impacts on our native species, and now we see that the NSW Scientific Committee has determined that there is a very high risk of extinction of koalas across large parts of the north coast,’ Dr Faruqi said.
Ms Smith said ‘the situation for north coast koalas is dire, with their numbers plummeting cuts to conservation funding at this time is disastrous news for the local population and those who fight tirelessly for their protection’.
‘Does this government have no compassion for our koalas?’, she said.
‘Not only are they cutting funding to, the RMS are still insisting on upgrading the Pacific Highway near Ballina through a route that will destroy the habitat of one of the region’s critically koala colonies.
‘This sort of environmental devastation cannot be mitigated, and this community does not accept the fate of our koala populations being threatened in this way.’
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