Community, Industry and Aboriginal Advisory groups for the Great Koala National Park have taken more than 223 days to establish after the NSW Government was elected with the new park being their signature environmental commitment. Ongoing habitat degradation through native forest logging continued unabated from the election until 12 September when the Government announced that just 4.7% of the proposed National Park would be protected from logging while the establishment processes are undertaken.
Greens MP and spokesperson for the Environment Sue Higginson said “The establishment of these advisory groups should provide some reassurance to communities on the Mid-North Coast. They will provide a great resource to the State, but why has it taken 223 days for these groups to be announced and it’s wrong that they have to work whilst grappling with the continued logging of the park.”
“These Advisory Groups should have been established within days of this Government being elected and given the mountains of research and public consultation that has already occurred on the Great Koala National Park, it could have been Gazetted immediately,”
“There is still no announcement on the timeline for establishing the Great Koala National park but we do know that it is unlikely to happen before the budget next year which means that critical areas of regional koala significance will continue to be logged without any additional protections,”
“It is wrong politically, socially, economically and environmentally to be delaying the establishment of the Great Koala National Park whilst continuing an exploitative and extractive industry like native forest logging. Every day logging in the Great Koala National Park continues is a cost to NSW and is a day of political failure.”
“The community and First Nations people of the Mid-North Coast have been calling for an end to logging in the Great Koala National Park for over a decade,” Ms Higginson said.
