Messages written on woodcuts are on their way to state MPs following a Gymea forum on proposed new land clearing laws.
The NSW Nature Conservation Council and Total Environment Centre staged the public information session on Wednesday night at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre.
Organiser Corinne Fisher said the meeting, attended by 65 local residents, unanimously endorsed the message, which read:
“We ask that you urgently request withdrawal of the NSW draft biodiversity legislation and act to ensure strong laws that protect our wildlife, amenity, soils and climate.”
Ms Fisher said the woodcuts would be delivered to Environment Minister and Cronulla MP Mark Speakman, Eleni Petinos (Miranda), Lee Evans (Heathcote) and Mark Coure (Oatley).
Ms Fisher said the forum confirmed many people did not realise the proposed laws would impact on urban areas.
“The government has sold it as a package that only affects farmers,” she said.
A short film, Restoring Earth, which was commissioned by the Wilderness Society, was shown at the meeting.
Ms Fisher said it showed farmers speaking out in support of strong tree protection laws.
Mr Speakman, in response to the meeting, said existing biodiversity laws were “not working for the environment or for farmers”.
“The very things they were designed to protect, biodiversity and threatened species numbers, were going backwards. Doing nothing was not an option,” he said.
“The NSW Government’s proposed land management and biodiversity conservation reforms, currently on public exhibition, aim to achieve the best possible outcomes for the environment and for farmers.
“They are designed to protect biodiversity while enabling farmers to plan for the future and improve productivity.”
Mr Speakman said the state government had already committed an extra $100 million over five years to the NSW Saving Our Species program, which aimed at securing threatened species in the wild across NSW.
“The government has also recently announced it will make an unprecedented investment of $240 million over five years, and $70 million in each following year, in a new private land conservation program,” he said.
“This is the single biggest investment in private land conservation ever by an Australian government.”
The Gymea event was 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”.
