MEDIA RELEASE
15th MAY 2025
Forestry Corporation squandered $14.9m of taxpayer funds in just six months logging the state’s natural forests, according to its half-year report tabled in parliament last week.
"It's not environmentally sustainable and it's not economically sustainable,” Nature Conservation Council NSW (NCC) Policy and Advocacy Director, Dr Brad Smith said.
"With this money, Premier Minns could hire 100 nurses and teachers who actually deliver for regional NSW. Instead, it's used to trash our precious forests and wildlife.”
NCC is calling on Premier Minns to end native forest logging in NSW and move to a plantation-based timber industry.
"Plantations already supply 90% of the state's timber production, including close to 100% of timber used in construction, which is plantation pine, not native hardwoods,” Dr Smith said.
“Forests are the lungs of the earth. They are essential to clean air, a sustainable climate and the survival of critically endangered species like the powerful owl, gang-gang cockatoo, greater glider and koala.
“We’ve already destroyed far too much of the NSW bush. The remaining habitats should be protected, not pulped.”
According to previous annual reports and Blueprint Institute analysis, NSW Forestry Corporation's losses peaked at $29m last financial year, by far the biggest loss since it was established as a state-owned corporation in 2013.
This year, FCNSW has already reached $14.9m in losses in just the first six months of the year. If this level of losses is repeated in the second half, it would record its largest loss in history of $29.8m.
The half-year report suggests no improvement is expected in the second half, citing "rising roading and land management costs, and ongoing harvesting disruptions and increased monitoring and compliance costs in hardwood forests.
References:
FCNSW half year results 2024-2025
Blueprint Institute, Exploring alternate land use options for the native forests of NSW, 2023, p5
ENDS
Media contact: Madeline Hayman-Reber
E: [email protected] M: 0404 935 157
Note: Spokespeople are available for comment on request