Two leading environmental organisations will conduct a forum in Gymea this week on proposed major changes to biodiversity and tree-clearing laws.
The proposed new laws would affect both farmland and urban areas.
The community information session is being staged by the NSW Nature Conservation Council and Total Environment Centre on Wednesday, May 25, from 6.30pm to 8.30pm, at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre.
It is one of a series of meetings to be held as part of a campaign, called Stand Up For Nature.
The campaign website warns “Thousands of possums, quolls, koalas and gliders will be killed each year if Mike Baird scraps our land-clearing laws”.
Early in May, the government released draft bills for public consultation over eight weeks.
The Biodiversity Conservation Bill 2016 and Local Land Services Amendment Bill 2016 would replace the Native Vegetation Act and Threatened Species Conservation Act.
The government said the legislation delivered on an election commitment to “overhaul ineffective, complicated environmental laws and create a new system that improves both environmental outcomes and farmers’ productivity”.
However, the proposed changes were strongly criticised by environmental groups, the Opposition and the Greens.
NSW Biodiversity Review Campaign Coordinator Corinne Fisher said Premier Mike Baird was “putting our urban bushland, climate and wildlife at risk with new laws that will fast-track bushland destruction across the state”.
“If these proposals become law, we will lose more landmark trees and bushland, and the state's 1000 threatened species, including koalas, will be under increasing pressure.
“The changes would also undermine Australia's attempts to cut our carbon pollution by increasing land clearing, one of our state’s biggest sources of greenhouse gases.”
Ms Fisher said the government was rushing through an “inadequate” eight weeks of community consultation in the hope people would not realise what would be lost.
Opposition spokeswoman on the Environment, Penny Sharpe, said the present laws, which were introduced by the Carr government in 2005, were the result of an agreement between farmers, government, scientists and environmentalists.
The proposed new laws were “biodiversity conservation bills in name only”, she said.
“They water down environmental protections and hand over too much decision making to government agencies that do not have biodiversity or the environment as their number one priority.
“This process has been driven by an ideological obsession of some elements of the National Party whose only aim is to rip up the existing laws.”
Greens spokeswoman for the Environment, Mehreen Faruqi, described the draft bills as “Baird’s blueprint for environmental destruction”.
“These changes are based on recommendations from a review panel in late 2015 to abolish the Native Vegetation Act 2003, weaken land clearing protections and expand failed biodiversity offsetting,” Dr Faruqi said.
“The Greens have been vehemently opposed to weakening of environmental protections.”
Deputy Premier Troy Grant said, when releasing the draft bills, under the new system, routine farm work would be exempt from regulation, farmers would be able to plan for the future to improve their productivity, and the government would provide farmers with incentives to conserve native plants and trees on their land.
Mr Grant said the changes would also protect and enhance the environment with an investment of $240 million over five years in private land conservation, $70 million in each following year and $100 million dedicated over five years to the Saving Our Species program.
Environment Minister Mark Speakman said the new laws would take a strategic approach to conservation and would complement the federal government’s biodiversity protections.
“We are delivering a simple and effective way to use and protect land that is backed by record government investment to build a network of conserved lands on private property.
“We have tough measures to protect endangered ecological communities supported by Commonwealth protections that will conserve our biodiversity for future generations.”
Details: landmanagement.nsw.gov.au
