This week’s paltry funding announcements by the Perrottet Government will do little to help save koalas and other threatened species from extinction.
Voters should not be conned by the few million dollars allocated to a handful of environmental research projects.
Nature Conservation Council Chief Executive Jaqui Mumford says that while any investment in research and preservation is absolutely welcome, the funding is wholly inadequate.
“In just the past year, the Koala, the Gang-Gang cockatoo and the Greater Glider have officially become endangered species in New South Wales.
“These iconic Australian species are on the fast track to extinction.
"We know what will work to save koalas and other threatened species; keeping their homes safe from being chopped down."
“Koalas need laws and policies that protect their forests from being cut down.
“We’ve known this for a long time, and it’s overdue for the Coalition to announce clear policies to achieve that protection for koalas' homes.
“If the Coalition was serious about giving the state’s spectacular flora and fauna a fighting chance, it would stop all logging in native forests.
“The Government allows logging companies to destroy 14,000 hectares of critical habitat each and every year. Many old trees end up as woodchips on export ships.
“The $2 million for research and conservation pales in comparison to the $29 million of taxpayers' money that the state-owned Forestry Corporation lost in the last two years.
“These meagre funding announcements will never disguise the fact that native forest logging makes no sense, either environmentally or economically.
This NSW Election, the NSW Conservation Council is calling for:
- A strong mechanism to immediately protect koala habitat across NSW
- An overhaul of land clearing laws
- The phase out public native forest logging by 2024
- An immediate end to woodchipping and the protection of the Great Koala National Park