Backed up by a renowned koala expert, local, national and international conservation groups are accusing the Roads, Maritime Services (RMS) agency of submitting inaccurate and misleading information in the Ballina Koala plan.
The RMS stands accused of manipulation of independent data in order to fit their own agenda.
A new review of the RMS’s Ballina Koala Plan, by leading koala ecologist Dr Stephen Phillips, concludes that the current location of Section 10 from Wardell to Ballina is almost in the worst possible area for Ballina’s nationally significant koala population of 196.
Dr Phillips believes that even without the road, the RMS’ Ballina Koala Plan acknowledges that the population is already on a steep decline trajectory to extinction and needs urgent help to survive.
The groups say if the minister approves this proposed route he is ‘green lighting their extinction.’
Headed by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the groups say the RMS has ‘totally failed to consider alternative routes that will avoid or minimise impacts to the koala population.’
They add that impact of allowing Section 10 to proceed is unacceptable to koalas and ‘does not satisfy the conditions imposed by Greg Hunt’. The RMS failings leave Mr Hunt no option but to direct RMS to find an alternative route.
The unsound science according to Dr Phillips includes:
- Significantly underestimating the numbers of koalas that will be displaced by the road construction process.
- Significantly overestimating the numbers of young female koalas in the population for each year of the plan. ‘This has led to a grossly exaggerated overestimate population size which in turn works to lower the extinction risk of the population as a whole and so the impacts of road construction,’ Dr Phillips says.
- Failing to acknowledge and accommodate worst-case scenarios in the modeling process, instead utilising simplistic, overly optimistic and indefensible outcomes to justify the selected route. .
- Failing to acknowledge the fact that more than 50 per cent of food trees currently being used by resident koala populations along the route will be lost due to road construction. ‘The loss of these trees, coupled with disturbances arising from the road construction process, may well jeopardise the viability and survival of each of the local populations affected,’ says Dr Phillips.
- Failing to model alternative routes, which could lessen the impact on resident populations
According to IFAW native wildlife campaigner Josey Sharrad, ‘the RMS has deliberately directed the science to fit their already selected route. It is now abundantly clear that the proposed Section 10 upgrade is in the wrong place; Ballina’s koalas need help not a highway, there’s no U-turn on extinction”.
Friends of the Koala president said Lorraine Vass said, ‘Poor planning over 10 years by the RMS does not justify the extinction of Ballina’s koala population. Greg Hunt can’t approve the Pacific Highway Section 10 Upgrade based on incorrect science. He must demand that the RMS find a more koala friendly route.’
According to Save Ballina’s Koalas spokesperson Jeff Johnson, ‘The RMS has ignored community concerns for 10 years. This ill-conceived highway route will have a devastating impact on a nationally significant koala population while decimating a number of Aboriginal sites and scar trees. ‘
‘It would be a national tragedy if this upgrade were to go ahead in its current location when there are alternative route options. We urge Minister Hunt to red light the proposed route, and save Ballina’s koalas,’ Mr Johnson said.
Greens join call
Greens candidate for Richmond, Dawn Walker, has now joined the call on the federal government to protect the nationally significant koala population.
Ms Walker asked minister Hunt ‘to carefully consider the submissions made by local experts on the fate of the Ballina koalas.’
‘Koalas in NSW are listed as a threatened species under state and federal legislation and Minister Hunt needs to make the survival of the Ballina koala population a priority.
‘Both Mmnister Hunt and the NSW Government have a responsibility to protect these koalas. The current approach by the government threatens the continued existence of a regionally and nationally significant koala population,’ Ms Walker said.
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