Kate Smolski , Chief Executive Officer , Nature Conservation Council of NSW
Many people in NSW may not know that Premier Mike Baird is rewriting laws that have protected our bushland and unique wildlife for decades.
His ill-named Biodiversity Conservation Bill represents the biggest change in environmental law in our lifetime, but unfortunately it is far from an improvement.
Rather than increasing protections for our koalas, gliders and other unique threatened species, his new laws will accelerate already unsustainable rates of land clearing.
More than 1000 of our unique plants and animals in NSW are threatened with extinction, and land clearing and habitat destruction is a key cause.
Mr Baird’s changes are not in the interests of the communities and wildlife that depend on healthy soils, waterways and bushland for their long-term survival.
Instead, they appear designed to further the short-term interests of big agribusiness and property developers.
Members of the public have until next Tuesday (June 28) to their say and I urge everyone to take the time to learn more about these harmful changes and make your views known.
To learn more and to make a submission visit www.standupfornature.org.au and www.landmanagement.nsw.gov.au/have-your-say/.
If these laws go through unchanged, they will cause terrible harm to nature in NSW for decades to come.
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