The latest rumour making the rounds is that the full 176,000 hectares will be locked up in the Great Koala National Park. Yet only days ago, Premier Chris Minns himself said he wasn’t guaranteeing it, leaving industry, workers, and regional communities in uncertainty.
In 2022–23, Australia imported $6.8 billion worth of timber, much of which was sourced from countries where deforestation is rampant and environmental safeguards are largely absent. Every shipment that comes in is not just a job lost in regional NSW, but also money leaving the economy to subsidise practices we would never allow here.
If the NSW Government presses ahead, those imports will only rise. That’s billions of dollars that should be staying in regional towns, supporting Australian workers, and backing industries that meet some of the strictest environmental conditions in the world!
Timber is not the enemy. It is the most sustainable building material we have. It grows back, sequesters carbon while growing, stores carbon in products, recycles naturally, and underpins renewable industries. Meanwhile, every phone, car, and high-rise tower relies on mining products which potentially have greater impacts than sustainable forestry ever could.
Dr Bradley Law, the principal research scientist from the forest science unit of the Department of Primary Industries, was gagged for years. His 7-year study across 224 sites with 25,000 hours of monitoring found that regulated timber harvesting in state forests had no effect on koala populations, nor did land tenure.
The real threats to koalas are wildfire, chlamydia, urban deforestation, cars, and dogs. Forestry doesn’t even make the top five. Yet the policy of locking up the GKNP is ignoring those threats.
Improving technology gives us better counts, with the CSIRO estimating 287,830 – 628,010 koalas in Australia and the NSW Governments high-tech drone survey, paid for by the public, backs it up with more than 12,000 koalas in the GKNP assessment area alone. Most in state forests, not national parks.
The financial imbalance is also stark. State forests currently operate with modest Community Service Obligations, $20 million in total, or $8.50 per hectare. National parks, by contrast, carry obligations of $850 million, or $121 per hectare. These figures come from a 2019 report, and no updated analysis has been provided. That’s a 14-fold cost difference per hectare, and taxpayers deserve transparency about whether these numbers have shifted.
If Victoria’s experience is any guide, the financial risks are enormous. When the Andrews Government shut down native forestry, it blew a $900 million hole in the budget. Money spent paying out contracts, compensation, and transition packages.
Where is the NSW Government going to find that kind of money?
If we’re serious about improving the environment, just look at the facts. NSW already has over 7.6 million hectares of national parks compared to just 2 million hectares of state forest, 1.2 million hectares of which are set aside for conservation. At a cost of $121 per hectare, have national parks really delivered the outcomes we were promised?
And what difference will locking up another 0.176 million hectares for a name change actually make, for the environment, or for koalas?
But it certainly will make a difference to the budget books for generations. Let’s manage our forestry for better environmental, recreational and financial outcomes.
- Please note: Michael Kemp is a member of the NSW Nationals and is the NSW Shadow Assistant Minister for Emergency Services, NSW Shadow Assistant Minister for Agriculture and Member for Oxley.
