NSW Deputy Premier, leader of the 18 member parliamentary National Party and Minister for Regional New South Wales, John Barilaro, sits atop a portfolio which holds in its departmental domain an est. 40 per cent of all NSW residents, in around 99 local government areas which produce approximately one-third of the total NSW gross state product.
Barilaro has gathered his own party members as minsters with responsibilities within the department - Nationals MLA for Northern Tablelands and Minister for Agriculture and Western New South Wales Adam Marshall and Nationals MLC and Minister for Mental Health, Regional Youth and Women Bronnie Taylor.
There does not seem to be a NSW Liberal Party politician within cooee of the relatively new 'purpose built' regional department.
The only function NSW Premier and Leader of the much larger parliamentary Liberal Party, Gladys Berejiklian, appears to now have with regard to those regional areas of the state is to act as a rubber stamp of approval for Barilaro's wishes - apparently out of fear he may still follow through on his threats to destabilise the state government.
There is little doubt that Berejiklian was weakened by the barely disguised guerrilla war Barilaro conducted (after losing the battle to amend the Land Services Act) using mainstream media as his weapon.
This is the current state of play à la Barilaro when it comes to forests and biodiversity in regional NSW.....
Michael West Media, 19 February 2021:
More than 62% of harvestable native forests were damaged in the catastrophic 2019-20 bushfires, according to the NSW government’s own records. Up to 10% of native hardwood forests were lost. Nearly 3 billion animals were killed or displaced, with about 8,000 koalas incinerated on the mid north coast of NSW alone. Some 113 animal species were identified as the highest priorities for urgent management intervention.
Despite this unprecedented damage to forests and wildlife, Deputy Premier John Barilaro is determined that industrial-scale logging will continue in NSW’s burnt and unburnt forests.
When the Environment Protection Authority sought a voluntary halt to logging in a number of state forests in March last year, after intervention by John Barilaro, the NSW Forestry Corporation rejected the request. Barilaro also holds the portfolio of Regional New South Wales, Industry and Trade, which covers the timber industry.
The EPA report says logging continued “because John Barilaro asked the [Forestry Corporation] to deliver on contractual obligations”.
Moreover, in the latest round of bushfire recovery pork barrelling announced by Barilaro, he awarded more than $38 million of the $177 million to timber/forestry projects.
These grants came on top of some $46 million that Barilaro’s Department, Regional NSW, awarded to the Forestry Corporation under bushfire recovery measures for urgent infrastructure repairs, nursery expansions and replanting the forest.
Barilaro’s Department of Regional NSW claims that forestry and related industries are responsible for more than 22,300 jobs.
Yet a 2016 report by The Australia Institute estimated that just 600 people were directly employed in the industry. The TAI report also put the economic losses of the native forest industry in NSW at $79 million over the past seven years, meaning that not only are taxpayers propping up an unviable industry, they are also propping up an industry that is adding to environmental destruction.
The Forestry Corporation also rejected a plea from the EPA for extra site-specific conditions to protect koalas.
Environment Protection Authority review
Four months ago, in September 2020, the EPA published a review it had commissioned from Dr Andrew Smith, an acknowledged expert in forest planning and management.
His review was the result of a consultation between the EPA and the Forestry Corporation to develop a suite of site-specific operating conditions to manage environmental risks associated with timber harvesting in burnt landscapes – a result of a “critical shortage of timber” after the bushfires.
Dr Smith’s findings were concerning. In particular Dr Smith noted:
Recovery times are likely to be up to 45 years for the koala and 20-120 years for the Greater Glider and Yellow-bellied Glider.
Fauna populations are at risk of elimination by timber harvesting under the normal Coastal Integrated Forestry Operations Approvals and cause catastrophic population decline in species such as the Koala, Greater Glider and Yellow-bellied Glider.
There should be a halt to logging of all unburnt and lightly burnt forests within the net harvest area for 12 months.
But the Forestry Corporation rejected his recommendations and advised the EPA that it intended to return to harvesting in September 2020 as it is “legally obliged to do so in order to meet supply commitments”.
Scientists, conservation organisations, and local communities are appalled by ongoing logging of burnt forests at a time when NSW native forests and wildlife need time to recover. Indigenous rights of native title holders whose land includes forests are also ignored.
Vulnerable and endangered species
The Forestry Corporation also approves its own harvest plans and is responsible for reporting non compliance.
An analysis of the harvest plans on the Forestry Corporation’s website demonstrates that almost every wildlife species included in logging plans for the north-east forests is either listed on the schedules of the Biodiversity Conservation Act or the Commonwealth EPBC list as vulnerable and endangered species.
Recommended recovery plans have not been developed as required and a significant number of affected species are under consideration for upgrading to endangered status by the Federal Threatened Species Scientific Committee.
NSW shuts down opposition
The Berejiklian government has also gone to great lengths to ensure no legal challenges can be mounted to prevent this industrial scale logging of NSW forests and the loss of biodiversity. The Premier’s actions strike at the heart of democracy…..
Read the full article here.
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