The NSW Government has quietly released the results of a $20m scientific survey into the number of Koalas in NSW with no fanfare at all, and yet the news is good, very good.
When there is good news to announce, Ministers often fall over each other to talk to the media, but not this time, because Minister Sharpe has been caught out in a lie.
Koalas are not endangered or threatened, with the report showing 274,000 koalas, 10 times the 30,000 koalas that the Minister has falsely used as justification to destroy livelihoods, businesses, and communities in the forestry industry.
The truth always gets out, and not necessarily when Ministers want it to.
According to Maree McCaskill, CEO of Timber NSW, “Only 12 weeks ago the government was stating that ‘Without action, koalas are on track to be extinct in the wild in NSW by 2050’ while their own surveys showed otherwise.”
“These numbers are the actual science that should have informed Minister Sharpe before partially shutting down the north coast timber industry in September, instead using political expediency and not science, and blatantly ignoring evidence. She knew the survey reports were due in November – what was her rush?”
“This report should be widely celebrated because it shows that “there are 274,000 koalas in New South Wales, with a 95% confidence”.
“Politicians like to tell voters that their decision making is evidence-based and yet we can see clearly now that the NSW Government’s urgent need to destroy livelihoods, businesses and communities in the native forest industry was not, and the Government knew they were spinning a lie.”
“While the decision to destroy forest industries has already been taken by Minister Sharpe, it is worthwhile recording that the park area has been sustainably managed and harvested for over 100 years, and during this time, there has been no threat to koalas from the timber industry.”
“The only disappointment is that $20m has been spent on a baseline survey and the Minister has no plans to follow this up with annual reviews.”
Timber NSW is now calling on the NSW Government to do two things …
- Review the decision to create a great big Koala Park in northern NSW”, we can have a smaller park and good jobs and
- Commit to regular reviews covering the same areas and using the same technology as was employed in this baseline survey.
Please note: The report that no Minister wants to talk about can be found here.
