Do you care about ecological diversity?
Many living in this region do, and we are lucky to live in a place where there is some of the highest biodiversity in the state.
Yet across NSW, land clearing and development are causing the ongoing extinction of threatened and vulnerable fauna and flora species – see page 4.
The NSW Biodiversity Indicator Program predicts that only 496 (50 per cent) of the 991 terrestrial species currently listed as threatened are expected to survive in the wild for the next 100 years.
And nationally, Australia has one of the worst extinction rates on Earth, according to www.acf.org, with 144 species added to the national threatened species list in 2023 alone.
Without diversity, ecological systems collapse, making it hard for anything to basically exist.
Given the tangible danger this poses to human and terrestrial existence, it would be reasonable to expect clear and strong leadership for best outcomes.
Unfortunately, the NSW Labor government are in charge, and have done a disservice to future generations who will be depending on ecological diversity to breathe and function.
They have attempted to ‘improve’ awful biodiversity offset laws that the Liberal-Nationals created. Replacing like for like biodiversity, or contributing to a fund to facilitate development, has shown to be a failure for nearly ten years.
Report after report shows this, whether it be from the NSW Auditor General, or Dr Ken Henry’s independent review, called Independent Review of the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 – Final Report, available from www.parliament.nsw.gov.au.
NSW Labor MP Trish Doyle told parliament on November 22, without any sense of irony, that her government ‘had listened’. But has it?
Many of the submissions from pro-development groups, for example, expressed concerns around the new layers of bureaucracy proposed, and lack of clarity.
Nature positive
Dr Henry’s first recommendation was to ‘amend the Act to commit to an overarching object of “nature positive”, where biodiversity is protected, restored and improving, thereby ensuring the integrity of ecosystem services and cultural values, preserving opportunities for future generations’.
That was ignored.
Maybe NSW Labor could have said: ‘As experts have consistently said since its inception, the Biodiversity Offsets Scheme is a terrible mechanism’.
‘It was enacted by the previous Liberal-Nationals government ten years ago, and has failed to deliver good ecological outcomes’.
‘As such, NSW Labor will reintroduce the environmental laws which they scrapped, including the Environmental Outcomes Assessment Methodology (EOAM)’.
‘Best practice matters, because we value future generations and a liveable planet.’
Hans Lovejoy, editor
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
