The Forest Alliance NSW has strongly criticised the Minns’ government budget for failing to allocate the money needed to deliver its promised Great Koala National Park and future forest industry reform.
The latest NSW budget forecast suggests just $2.5 million would be spent in the next financial year on capital works on the Great Koala National Park project, raising concerns that proposed park boundaries may not even be announced and certainly won’t be delivered in the coming financial year.
No allocation for industry transition or the promised Forest Industry Action Plan has been made in the budget.
Forest Alliance spokesperson Justin Field said, ‘There is barely enough money allocated in this budget to put up a sign for a Great Koala National Park, never mind deliver it.
‘It’s now 28 months since the Minns Labor government came to power in 2023 and logging has continued within the proposed Great Koala National park boundaries with over 8,000 hectares of the proposed park already logged.
‘Native forest logging is an ongoing economic drag on the NSW budget and Treasurer Mookhey has squibbed an opportunity to address this financial drain,’ said Mr Field.
‘Since 2023 the government owned logging company has posted $59 million in losses from its native hardwood logging operations, been fined approximately $1 million for environmental breaches and is currently subject to more than 20 separate investigations by the environmental regulator.’
Unfunded and undelivered
Dailan Pugh from the North East Forest Alliance said, ‘The NSW government’s election commitments for a Great Koala National Park and industry reform are largely unfunded and undelivered.
‘We participated on the Community Advisory Panel based on the promise that a decision on park boundaries would be made by the end of 2024. The assessment was completed last year, and since then we have repeatedly been told that the decision would be announced “soon”.
‘If the NSW government is fair-dinkum about creating the Great Koala National Park “soon”, we would have expected the budget to include a significant allocation to provide for structural adjustment for displaced workers and rehabilitation of areas of the park damaged by logging.
‘Now we know that money hasn’t been allocated, the community is right to doubt the Minns’ government’s commitment to these reforms.’
Where is the commitment?
Gary Dunnet, from the NSW National Parks Association said, ‘We are disappointed there has not been a major commitment in the budget to delivering the Great Koala National Park. Further delays to announcing the park and removing logging will only further degrade this critical habitat and increase the costs of rehabilitation.
‘Investment is needed now to maximise the economic and environmental opportunities of a world class national park, protecting Australia’s most iconic species,’ said Mr Dunnet.
The ongoing delays in delivering the Minns’ Government’s signature environmental election commitment comes as new logging in Orara East and Viewmont State Forests continues to impact on koala and greater glider habitat in the proposed park area.
State owned logging company Forestry Corporation commenced logging in Orara East State Forest on 16 June. Orara East is home to a recognised Koala Hub – an area of significant koala habitat – and is home to as many as 50 koalas according to NPWS data.
Independent ecologists have recently identified Yellow-bellied Gliders and the nationally endangered Greater Glider in the old-growth component of Viewmont State Forest. No survey for gliders has been conducted by the Forestry Corporation.
‘It is outrageous that six months later, forests identified as high priorities for inclusion in the park, including core koala habitat in Orara East State Forest and mapped old-growth forest and glider habitat in Viewmont State Forest, continue to be logged,’ said Dalian Pugh.
Koalas miss out as climate costs hit hard
Yesterday’s budget is a sad indictment on the cost of global inaction on climate and protecting nature, according to the Nature Conservation Council of New South Wales (NCC), the state’s leading environmental organisation.
NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey yesterday announced $4.2 billion for disaster relief across the forward estimates, including Australian government contributions.
‘The costs of climate-fuelled disasters are mounting, yet this budget fails to make investments that get our climate targets back on track,’ said Jacqui Mumford, Chief Executive Officer for Nature Conservation Council NSW.
‘Restoring and protecting nature is a big part of the solution – whether it’s tackling deforestation, restoring ecosystems, or protecting species against decline.’
However the NSW Labor government says it will spend just 1.58 per cent of the budget on the environment, a decline from the long-term average of 2 per cent, as a proportion of the overall budget.
What price nature?
In a budget submission to the NSW state government in December last year, NCC recommended that spending should be at least 2 per cent.
‘Whilst the NSW budget deficit is decreasing, sadly, the temperature, our threatened species list, habitat destruction and climate disasters are all on the rise,’ said Ms Mumford.
‘Surely the most prudent thing to do would be to invest in maintaining and bringing back healthy ecosystems which will help protect us into the future. Meanwhile, spending on natural disasters has increased tenfold for relief and recovery efforts since the Black Saturday Bushfires of 2019.
‘What we’ve been given today is a big zero on new spending on the Great Koala National Park, let alone funds to effectively support the implementation of the government’s first Nature Strategy,’ said Ms Mumford.
‘What is still accounted for, however, is subsidies for native forest logging. Over the past four and a half years, the hardwood division has lost $87 million at the taxpayer’s expense.
‘We can no longer afford to keep running nature at a deficit. We need to put nature spending back on the priority list for NSW,’ she said.
‘The NSW government has rightly acknowledged climate and extinction crises but continues to underfund solutions. Without strong investment in the ecosystems that protect us, we are not building real climate resilience.’
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