NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian challenged on ranger cuts

A former national parks ranger has challenged Gladys Berejiklian to deny her government has cut 100 rangers since coming to office.

Former ranger Kim de Govrik.

A former national parks ranger who lost his job in a restructure has challenged Gladys Berejiklian to deny her government has cut 100 rangers since coming to office in 2011 — making hazard-reduction burns less frequent.

Both the NSW Premier and Deputy Premier John Barilaro took to radio on Wednesday to deny there were fewer field staff doing hazard-reduction burns after the Public Service Association told The Australian ranger numbers had been cut by a third.

“Since 2017, we’ve increased by 144 the number of staff in National Parks and Wildlife,” Ms Berejik­lian told the ABC. “What you’re hearing is not necessarily facts and I’m talking about the facts.

“I strongly refute those claims. Since 2017 we’ve increased the number of full-time employees.”

Mr Barilaro also denied the Public Service Association’s claims that since 2011 the department’s 289 rangers, including 28 senior rangers, had been trimmed to 193.

Ms Berejiklian would not repeat the claim ranger numbers had not been cut when questioned in parliament on Wednesday afternoon, instead talking about the growth in overall field officer staff.

Environment Minister Matt Kean conceded to The Australian on Wednesday that the state had cut the number of rangers, who are involved in hazard-reduction burns, from 264 to 220, but denied the government was not doing enough.

Kim de Govrick, a PSA official who lost his job as a ranger in a restructure, said he felt he should leave the service after being asked to do more with fewer resources after he was asked to be in charge of two areas, rather than one.

“I was a career ranger,” Mr de Govrick said.

“What happened is they combined areas.

“They were trying to cut costs and reduce the number of staff.

“We were struggling to manage one area. They wanted us to manage more.”

Mr Kean told The Australian there were now 695 field officers (up from 669 in 2017, but he confirmed there were 208 rangers in 2017, 264 in 2011 and now there were just 220.

Mr Barilaro told 2GB that not enough was being done about ­hazard-reduction burns but it was “not correct” that ranger numbers had been cut.

“National Parks’ approach has been to lock it up and it hasn’t worked,” Mr Barilaro said.

“We’ve got to do better. I know we don’t do enough hazard reduction because of the ideological position of the Greens.”

In question time he said: “We still live with Bob Carr’s legacy — lock up the forests and let them burn.”

Ms Berejiklian and Mr Kean were accused by the opposition of misleading parliament when they said there were 1226 firefighters accredited with the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Mr Kean later admitted that the number of NPWS staff cleared for firefighting duties was 1067.

Mr Kean said in the past year, the NPWS had met its 135,000ha hazard-reduction target, but it burnt only 88,136ha in 2016-17 and 95,589ha in 2017-18.