Lismore residents are being invited to a meeting that will call on premier Mike Baird to end his ‘war on trees’.
A community meeting to discuss the government’s plans to make it easier for property developers and big agribusiness to remove trees and clear native bushland will be held at The Presbyterian Hall in Lismore on Thursday.
The meeting is one of many being organized by the NSW Nature Conservation Council and the Total Environment Centre across the state.
Organisers say the government plans to abolish the Native Vegetation Act and the Threatened Species Conservation Act and replace it with a new Biodiversity Conservation Act.
They say the new Act would put landmark trees and bushland at risk, renew broad scale land clearing, and add pressure to the state’s top 1000 threatened species.
It would also threaten water supplies, degrade farmland and undermine Australia’s ability to meet its carbon pollution reduction targets.
Nature Conservation Council CEO, Kate Smolski said people were outraged that Premier Mike Baird was allowing the Nationals in the Coalition to dictate environment policy to the whole of the state.
‘Our communities do not want the Baird government to scrap the laws that have defended bushland and wildlife for more than a decade,’ she said.
A motion calling on the Baird government to halt species extinction, biodiversity loss and vegetation destruction in city and country areas will be voted on at the meeting.
Total Environment Centre director Jeff Angel said the new law was all about facilitating development rather than protecting biodiversity and acting to mitigate damaging climate change impacts.
‘People are fed up with losing precious bushland. They are looking to Mike Baird to show some leadership on this issue by standing up to the radicals in his government who are driving these damaging changes,’ Mr Angel said.
The meeting will be held at the Presbyterian Hall at 168 Keen Street from 5.30pm to 7.30pm on Thursday.
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