Whole of government approach key to saving koalas: opposition

State Member for Campbelltown Greg Warren says that while the overdue NSW Koala Strategy is welcome, what the residents of Campbelltown need and deserve is genuine action rather than lip service.

Mr Warren and the Labor opposition are warning that koalas cannot be saved if the current laws, policies and planning rules fail to protect endangered koalas.

Koalas in NSW will be extinct in the wild by 2050 and the government says the five year, $193m NSW Koala Strategy commits to turning this around by doubling the number of koalas in the wild from 20,000 to 40,000 by 2050.

“The colony is loved by many in our community and we need to ensure that our koalas not only survive but also thrive.

This can only be achieved with a policy framework that will see the actual realisation of these targets.”

His colleague Penny Sharpe, the shadow minister for the environment (pictured with Mr Warren above), says that while Labor welcomes this investment in the future of NSW koalas, “but we remain concerned that this target cannot be met without a change to other policies across government’’.

Labor says koala numbers cannot be doubled if:

• The NSW Government fails to apply clear rules through the planning system that protect key koala corridors and ensure there are safe road crossings before development occurs;
  • The changes to land clearing laws that have seen a 300 percent increase in land clearing are allowed to continue in their current form;
  • The stalled private native forestry code waters down protections for koala habitat on private land;
  • The political bickering over the Koala State Environment Planning Policy (SEPP) continues;
  • The NSW Government continues to ignore the Natural Resources Commission Report that sets out key actions to save and restore severely burned forests after the Black Summer bushfires;
  • The NSW Government refuses to legislate net zero greenhouse gas emissions targets.

“The NSW Koala Strategy is doomed to failure unless a true whole of government approach is committed to and delivered by each and every minister with oversight on the policies and laws that impact on koalas,” says Ms Sharpe.