Paul Gannon, Coopers Shoot
The changes to the SEPP in NSW will not save koalas. The minor changes are a deliberate distraction from the neglect of public parklands by the present state and federal governments. The continual ‘efficiency dividends’ targeting state and national parks, and the consequent lack of sufficient park management, have contributed to the massive recent bushfires and the destruction of koalas and their habitat.
Regulations have existed for a long time that can stop private developments that threaten koala habitat. It simply takes government agencies to properly exercise these regulations. The plain truth is that existing national and state parks offer a much greater koala survival chance than a SEPP affecting much smaller parcels of private land proposing development. Obviously the government does not want to put back the money taken from parkland. They want people to think that the recent changes to the SEPP is the government working to save koalas.
All residents need to contribute to saving koalas via more tax dollars to parklands and through deliberate efforts to create, grow, and protect koala colonies. SEPP changes are a furphy! Placing the onus on farmers to save koalas is not equitable, nor will it be effective. It is divisive and distractive. We should expect more, much more from our governing politicians!
