‘This activity is a real threat’: MPs piling on pressure over state’s koala park promise

Pressure is mounting on the NSW government to end its logging of the proposed Great Koala National Park immediately as five lower house independent MPs implore Premier Chris Minns to fast-track the project.

The MPs told the premier in a letter they welcomed the government’s promise to create the park during the past three elections but shared community concerns that the park had still not been declared 20 months after Labor gained government, and that logging by the government-owned Forestry Corporation inside its proposed boundaries had intensified.

A koala inside the boundaries of the proposed Great Koala National Park.Credit: Paul Hilton

The Great Koala National Park will add state forests to the existing national park estate on the Mid North Coast to provide better connectivity of habitat for wildlife, especially koalas, as climate change progresses.

“With each passing day, the values the park seeks to preserve are being further eroded, with NSW Forestry Corporation implementing an intensified rate of logging before they lose access to the resource,” the letter says.

“We understand that Forestry Corporation is continuing to plan for logging inside the proposed park boundaries and may be about to commence logging in some coups not currently being logged.

“This activity is a real threat to the integrity of the park. Once old trees are gone, these logged forests will take decades to recover, if they ever do.

“Native state forests are public assets belonging to everyone in our state. NSW Forestry Corporation is a public state-owned corporation, which the government controls.

“There is a clear public interest case to conserve these forests for current and future generations as well as for carbon storage. We all have a stake in this, but only your government has the power to make it happen.”

A government spokesperson said it remained committed to the park and a sustainable timber industry and that the assessment process was continuing.

Alex Greenwich, MP for Sydney and one of the letter’s signatories, said crossbenchers were unified on the issue but determined to work co-operatively with the government and would not threaten the passage of legislation.

Independent MPs in the upper house signed a similar letter, supporting their colleagues and calling on the premier to immediately end logging inside the assessment area for the park, and end logging inside public native forests by March.

Greens MP Sue Higginson, who signed the upper house letter, said it displayed the unity in parliament over the issue.

“Liberal, Labor, Greens and the majority of members in the parliament are ready to end the destruction of native forests by logging now, and we are collectively calling on Premier Chris Minns to act.”

Speaking anonymously last week, several Labor MPs told the Herald they were “deeply concerned at how long it’s taking”, and that there was increasing pressure from the backbench.

Native forest logging has been abandoned in Victoria and Western Australia.

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