The recently-released NSW Forestry Corporation’s annual report, which shows that taxpayers will again be asked to spend $15 million to subsidise native forest logging, has today been labelled ‘a damning indictment on our state’.
Ms Mumford says the report shows that it cost $15 million more to cut down and pulp trees from native forest than was made from selling them.
‘That means that since the 2019/20 financial year, taxpayers have had to pay Forestry Corporation NSW a total of $290 million to cut down endangered glider and koala habitat,’ she said.
‘Once again, the taxpayer will bear the cost. These are vital funds that could be used to fund teachers, nurses, and national park rangers.
‘One of the damning impacts of the report is that the sustainable plantations forestry division of the Forestry Corporation NSW, which employs 19,000 people and provides the timber used for housing, is having its profits taken to bail out the failing native forest logging division.’
Increased scrutiny
The latest annual report comes at a time of increased scrutiny over Forestry Corporation NSW. The taxpayer-owned agency is facing prosecutions for several incidents and has recently been exposed failing to protect endangered Southern Greater Gliders before logging after it surveyed for the nocturnal animal during the day.
‘The NSW Government needs to come to terms with the fact that native forest logging is a declining industry and make a plan for a transition,’ said Jacqui Mumford.
‘Victoria and Western Australia have already committed to ending the industry by 2024. How much more taxpayer money has to be wasted, and endangered animals killed, before this reality sinks in?’
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