Greens MP Mehreen Faruqi to bulldoze native trees in $1.5 million subdivision of Port Macquarie property
A leading Greens MP is planning to bulldoze dozens of trees to subdivide her Port Macquarie investment property into three luxury rentals.
A leading Greens Senator is planning to bulldoze dozens of trees in order to subdivide her Port Macquarie investment property into three luxury rentals.
Deputy Greens leader Mehreen Faruqi submitted a development application to Port Macquarie Hastings Council in January to knock down the existing four-bedroom home and replace it with three new dwellings at an estimated cost of nearly $1.5 million, The Adelaide Advertiser first reported on Tuesday.
Senator Faruqi, who entered federal parliament in 2018, purchased the 1322 square metre property near Lighthouse Beach in 2001 for $250,000, property records show.
Today the house is estimated to be worth more than $1 million.
The Port Macquarie development application, approved by the council in May, would see the removal of around 20 trees from the property — including one hollow-bearing tree, which provides a habitat for native animals — to make way for one dual-occupancy townhouse and a single-family house.
“This will require the removal of most of the trees on site,” an ecological assessment report submitted to council states. “Tree removal comprises planted ornamental trees and native species including figs, guioa, tuckeroo, fruit trees and tree ferns. Up to 20 native trees and shrubs will require removal, as well as ornamental plantings.”
The report, prepared by environmental consultants WolfPeak, said the main animal species detected during the survey “consisted of common bird species including little wattlebird, grey butcherbird, Lewin’s honeyeater, eastern whipbird and rainbow lorikeet”, and “one eastern blue-tongue lizard was observed in the front garden”.
Several fresh koala droppings were also found near the boundary but the associated tree was situated on an adjoining property and “no preferred koala food trees were found on the site”.
The report noted the “greater area contains a potential foraging resource for the koala”.
“Given that the koala was only recorded via scats under a tree on the site boundary which will be retained and that food trees occur on adjoining properties and surrounding area, the development is unlikely to have any significant adverse impacts on the local population,” it said.
In total, 11 threatened fauna species were “identified as having potential to use the site” but the environmental assessment concluded they were “unlikely to be significantly impacted by the proposal due to their ecology, the historical disturbance of the site and the mitigation measures proposed”.
Proposed mitigation measures to reduce the environmental impacts of the development include “pre-clearing surveys and clearing supervision, weed control, and replacement fauna nest boxes”.
Senator Faruqi has been contacted for comment.
A spokeswoman for Senator Faruqi told The Advertiser, “If this project goes ahead, it will meet all ecological requirements, including retaining the large spotted gum along the boundary under which koala scats have been found and building nesting boxes.”
Port Macquarie boasts one of the largest koala populations in NSW with more than 2000 in the region, and is home to the well known Port Macquarie Koala Hospital.
According to the Port Macquarie Hastings Council, “the main threats to koalas in our region are loss of habitat, road strikes and dog attacks”.
“Koalas face many threats to an increasingly cleared, developed and fragmented landscape,” the council’s 2018 Koala Recovery Strategy document states.
“The biggest threat to koalas is habitat loss, including impacts from clearing for development and selective logging. Much of the koala’s habitat in Port Macquarie Hastings area overlaps with areas where significant clearing has occurred, and continues to occur, for urban, industrial and rural development.”
In 2020, a NSW parliamentary inquiry found koalas are on track to become extinct by 2050 if urgent action isn’t taken to protect their habitat. In 2022 they were listed as endangered.
“Koala populations in NSW have decreased between 33 per cent and 61 per cent since 2001,” the NSW Greens website says, noting there are estimated to be fewer than 20,000 left in the state.
“The Greens have a plan to protect koalas and their habitat across the state from south west Sydney to Lismore to the South Coast.”
Senator Faruqi has previously been critical of past state governments for allowing koala habitats to be cleared, notably opposing the duplication of the Pacific Highway on the NSW north coast while she was an upper house MP in 2016.
At the time, she said the then Coalition government of Mike Baird should have examined other options for the highway route, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
“Koala populations around the state are in decline, with NSW koala numbers plummeting by a third since 1990,” she said. “We have to be smarter than this and not make lazy decisions that jeopardise their future.”
Senator Farqui lists four properties on her parliamentary register of interests — one in Port Macquarie, two in the desirable inner Sydney suburb of Beaconsfield, as well as a 500 square metre parcel of land in Lahore, Pakistan.
One Beaconsfield home is the family’s primary residence while the other is an investment property which she and her husband purchased for $193,000 in 1996, and today is estimated to be worth nearly $1.4 million.
In recent months the Greens have clashed with the Labor government for blocking Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s signature $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, which would see the construction of up to 30,000 social and affordable homes.
The Greens have demanded a nationwide cap or freeze on rent increases — something only states and territories have the power to do under the constitution — in exchange for supporting the package.
Federal Housing Minister Julie Collins told the ABC’s Insiders last month that the experience from ACT, the only jurisdiction in Australia to cap rents, had in fact reduced supply which would lead to higher rents longer term.
“The overwhelming evidence suggests that it doesn’t work,” she said.
“It does work in a little way but overall, evidence and data shows that it doesn’t work long term. What it shows long term is — in terms of what the experts are telling us — is that it reduces supply. When you look at the evidence that is being cited by others, the evidence shows that it reduces supply significantly by up to 15 per cent. The other thing that it shows is the quality of the stock diminishes over time.”
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