How important is protection of the natural environment to
the NSW Government?
Many in the community believe that the Government gives
it a very low priority. There are even some who would assert that
the NSW Coalition Government is conducting a war on the environment.
Concern about the Government’s environmental attitudes is
the inevitable result of a series of its policies and legislation over recent
years. A few examples are its original very strong support for CSG and
unconventional gas mining[1], its
weakening of land-clearing and biodiversity protection laws[2],
its strong support of coal mine expansions despite community opposition[3], and more recently, its plan to
change the law to enable Lithgow’s Springvale Mine to stay open despite its
threat to Sydney’s water catchment[4].
The latest major threat to the natural environment in NSW
is the re-structure of the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS).
The National Parks and Wildlife Service, a part of the Office of Environment
and Heritage, manages more than 870 national parks and reserves covering
over 7 million hectares of land which is more than 9% of the state’s land
area.
The restructure which is currently under way involves the
amalgamation of administrative areas, and either the loss of experienced
officers or their demotion to what will be little more than clerical roles with
substantially reduced salaries. In addition there are serious concerns
about the effect of the changes on fire-fighting capacity as well as on pest
management.
The changes resulting from this restructure will have
serious effects throughout the state.
Grafton on the NSW North Coast, for years an
administrative centre for NPWS, will lose that function. Despite Grafton’s
location in the geographical centre of the new region, the administrative
headquarters is being transferred to Coffs Harbour.
Clarence Valley locals, having seen over recent years the
steady transfer of state government jobs from Grafton to Coffs Harbour, are
angry about this. What makes this decision even more nonsensical to some
Clarence residents is that the Clarence Valley LGA (Local Government Area)
contains one of the biggest areas of national parks on the North Coast.
Clarence Valley Mayor, Cr Jim Simmons, pointed out recently that the Clarence
had 2,262 sq km of national parks, 22% of the Council area, while Coffs Harbour,
has only 42 sq km – a mere 4% of the Coffs council area.
While there is concern about job losses, the loss of
expertise in the Service and the impact of this drawn-out and unfair process on
the Service officers, there is another major concern – the long-term effect on
our very important national parks estate. Despite the claims by
politicians, including the Nationals Member for Clarence, Chris Gulaptis, this
is a cost-cutting exercise at a time when the Government has boasted about a
record budget surplus of $4.5 billion. Any claim that it is not
cost-cutting when the NPWS budget has been reduced by $121 million is obviously
ludicrous.
However, it is probably more than just a cost-cutting
exercise. It is almost certain that it is at least partly driven by the ideology
of the Coalition Government a core part of which, according to John Menadue[5], is commercializing and privatising
public assets.
With reference to this,
Menadue said: “A clear case at the moment is the NSW National Parks and
Wildlife Service. It is being deliberately underfunded and forced to seek
private funding and promoting commercial access to public parks.
“Yet this is
happening when, with growing population density, we have a greatly increased
need for public parks, gardens and open space. Furthermore, we were able to
fund our public parks for decades in the past when we were much poorer than we
are today. We need to protect our parks more than ever and we have more money
to do so. Yet state governments are screwing national parks with funds to force
commercialization and privatization.”
In the same post Menadue quoted
figures from John Benson about the downgrading of the NPWS[6].
“The number of rangers has been reduced by more than
90 over seven years. Only two of 14 regional managers have been appointed after
a restructure and a similar threat faces critical staff at the area management
level. Staff is so reduced in some regions that basic amenities cannot be
maintained and a lack of field staff presence disappoints public visitor
expectations.”
Despite all
the spin from politicians and bureaucrats, it is obvious that the government
intends to downgrade our national parks and is setting up the National Parks
and Wildlife Service for failure. If the community, including that in our local
area, does not protest vehemently enough, we will be stuck with this vandalism
until this arrogant government is removed.
Hildegard
Northern
Rivers
Footnotes
[1] In particular for Metgasco in the Northern Rivers – until the very strong community opposition forced a buy-back of the Metgasco licence.
[2] The 2016 Biodiversity Conservation Act and Local Land Services Amendment Act. There are strong concerns that this legislation will lead to huge biodiversity loss and allow broadscale land clearing.
[5]John Menadue’s blog - https://johnmenadue.com/john-menadue-the-new-squatters-in-our-national-parks/
[6] John Benson’s post on Menadue’s blog - https://johnmenadue.com/john-benson-biodiversity-is-threatened-in-new-south-wales/ provides an interesting view of the former world class quality of the NSW national parks estate and its current decline.
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GuestSpeak is a
feature of North Coast Voices allowing Northern Rivers residents to
make satirical or serious comment on issues that concern them. Posts of 250-300
words or less can be submitted to ncvguestspeak AT gmail.com.au for consideration. Longer posts will
be considered on topical subjects.
