The Minns government has lost its way on environmental policy, according to the New South Wales opposition, the Greens and a member of the crossbench, after government data revealed a 40% surge in land clearing across the state.
The report is the latest headache for a state government under pressure over conservation concerns, including continued logging in a promised koala park in the state’s north and the failure of a koala translocation project in the state’s south.
“Where is Chris Minns on the environment? He hasn’t delivered, he’s had two years,” the NSW Greens environment spokesperson, Sue Higginson, said.
Higginson said the government “rode to power” on a promise to do better for nature but habitat destruction had continued, adding there had been no discussion about changing “disastrous” native vegetation laws introduced by the former Coalition government.
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“Right now Labor’s environmental integrity is nonexistent as we are still waiting for the establishment of the Great Koala national park and it is still being logged at an industrial scale,” she said.
The 2023 land-clearing data, published Monday afternoon, shows 66,498 hectares of native vegetation was cleared for agriculture, infrastructure and forestry in 2023, which the Nature Conservation Council of NSW said was “equivalent to bulldozing Sydney’s Royal national park four times over”.
Land clearing in the state has increased over several years as a result of John Barilaro-era laws introduced in 2017 that relaxed regulation of native vegetation clearing.
In the years since, clearing across the state exploded, at one point reaching levels close to 100,000 hectares per year. While the 2023 data does not show clearing of that scale, the destruction of habitat increased significantly after a brief dip in 2022.
Clearing of woody vegetation was up 55%, with 32,847 hectares cleared in 2023, compared with 21,137 hectares in 2022. Agriculture was responsible for 77% of all clearing, and the state’s west and north-west, including the Cobar and Bogan shire council areas, were clearing hotspots.
In June, the NSW State of the Environment report showed the trajectory of conservation indicators including the extent of native vegetation, the condition of habitat and the number of threatened species was getting worse.
The Coalition environment spokesperson, James Griffin, said he was open to talks with the government about reforms to land-clearing regulations. Higginson said the Greens were also prepared to work with the government to rein in clearing.
Griffin accused Labor of spending its time in opposition attacking the Coalition for its environmental performance, and since winning government in 2023, “not only are these problems not being solved, they’re getting worse”.
“I’m passionate about the environment and this is an outrageous situation we find ourselves in,” he said.
“The key indicators on the state of the environment are going backwards, there’s no marine conservation program to speak of and there is a complete lack of ambition on fundamental environmental issues,” he said.
“I have a great degree of sympathy for [environment minister] Penny Sharpe. I think she has been completely sidelined by Chris Minns who sees zero political benefit in the environment and so simply doesn’t care.”
The independent MP for Pittwater, Jacqui Scruby, said both major parties had failed.
She said while Griffin criticised Labor, “the reality is, his government chose to accelerate this disaster, tearing up the Native Vegetation Act in 2016 and unleashing a bulldozer bonanza that has only accelerated”.
“Labor promised to fix the mess – but nearly two years later, native forests are still being logged and critical habitat is still being destroyed,” she said.
Scruby said she had recently visited parts of the proposed Great Koala national park on the mid-north coast.
“I saw fresh koala scratchings on trees just metres from clear-felling. It was gut-wrenching. These forests are supposed to be part of a koala sanctuary – but they’re being logged while we continue to wait for Labor to act,” she said.
In a statement, the NSW minister for the environment, Penny Sharpe, said her government would “continue to work with the Natural Resources Commission and with farmers” on land clearing.
“Before the Coalition came into power, land clearing was down to around 10,000 hectares a year. The Coalition let this blow out,” she said.
“This will take time to work through, but we are committed to reducing excessive land clearing.”
On Friday, the government took a step towards delivering one of its environmental commitments by formally gazetting the first 962 hectares of a promised national park for koalas on the Georges River in south-western Sydney.
The new park, called Warranmadhaa (Georges River Koala national park), is located between Long Point and Appin.
“This new national park is one of the most important in the state for koala conservation, protecting almost 1,000 hectares of vital koala habitat in south-west Sydney and delivering on our promise to safeguard this iconic species,” Sharpe said.
“$48.2m has been committed to establish and manage this park, ensuring long-term protection for the south-west Sydney’s koalas.”
