About 50 people turned out at Marvell Hall in Byron Bay on Thursday (July 26) to hear about new land clearing laws passed by the state government last year.
The presentation by the Nature Conservation Council and the Environmental Defenders Office laid out the disturbing and scary situation faced by our endangered species and precious bushland across NSW.
Asren Pugh, the Labor candidate for Ballina, who attended the forum said, ‘These laws are a license to kill. It is clear that the National Party have absolutely no regard for native plants or animals, even those on the doorstep to extinction.’
‘These laws allow 99 per cent of koala habitat on private land in NSW to be cleared. It allows the total destruction of a species of animal or plant. It allows them to be pushed to extinction. It allows developers to pay money to allow them to destroy an endangered ecological community, or the last remaining stand of habitat for an endangered species like the Regent Honeyeater.’
‘Labor has campaigned against these laws for over a year, we voted against them in parliament and Labor will reverse these changes if we get elected next year.’
The Nature Conservation Council outlined its plans to campaign to change these laws, including taking the NSW Government to court. You can find out more about their campaign here https://www.nature.org.au/our-campaigns/land-clearing-and-wildlife/.
MR Pugh said ‘This is an important campaign that we should all get behind. We need to put pressure on the NSW Government to change these laws now. And in March we need to kick the National Party out and change the government.’
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