The NSW Labour Party promised a GKNP pre -election. Since election logging in key koala habitat within the GKNP has increased.

Native forest logging is not economical, requiring over $20 million in taxpayer subsidies last year or over $400 per hectare! Meanwhile plantation forest earns $3,873 per hectare.

Police and RFS resources and tax payer money are being wrecklessly spent as they are directed to silence the general public including first nations peoples.

The Koala population was decimated by one third in the 2019-20 bushfires, with estimated 10,000 koala losses. Oakes is one of the few critical habitat areas that survived relatively unscathed however the forest and the threatened native fauna are still in recovery.

It is also critical habitat to greater and yellow-bellied glider, rufous scrub bird, giant bared frog and many more endangered species. When Forest Corp say they spare specific habitat trees it shows their ignorance of how animals like koalas move in communities through corridors. They don’t sit in a solitary tree day in and day out!  They travel vast distances each day to graze many trees.

Local Land Council and Gumbaynggirr Elders have not been consulted. Sacred sites and cultural significance are being ignored. The NSW government stated in Parliament last week that “Culture is a human right”.

The Nambucca shale beds are very steep, unstable, high slip areas that cannot tolerate disruption without further devastating effects on the Nambucca, Bellinger and Kalang rivers.

Farmers, graziers, oyster growers, fisherman, tourists and the local residents all depend on water quality from these rivers to survive.

We cannot afford to lose any more native forest to logging. As more endangered species become extinct human existence becomes more imminently threatened. What future do our children or grandchildren have if we keep destroying native forest on industrial scale.

Dire warnings from scientists that planet Earth has just been upgraded from global warming status to the Era of Global Boiling 26/07/2023, ref: UN secretary Antonio Guterres.

Transitioning forestry workers to ecotourism, plantation forest and forest farming was budgeted by Dominic Perrottet Liberal government. Modelling by National Parks Australia shows the economic gains of sustainable alternative industries, including 9,810 new jobs. Th,000 NSW forest industry workers must be taken care of because they are part of our community. Saving $20million in annual subsidies would go a long way there.

Timber, Cedar, to be specific, was the first business of colonialists in these regions. It was harvested selectively by hand, drawn by bullock and transported down flooding rivers. 

The 40 tonne machines of today are NOT selective in what is displaced in their path. Climate has changed, economies have changed. We know of better practices that are sustainable and more economical that also respect First Nations people.

Timber, Cedar, to be specific, was the first business of colonialists in these regions. It was harvested selectively by hand, drawn by bullock and transported down flooding rivers. 

The 40 tonne machines of today are NOT selective in what is displaced in their path. Climate has changed, economies have changed. We know of better practices that are sustainable and more economical that also respect First Nations people.

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We all need to change practices that suit today’s needs. 

No one has the job they did 20 years ago!