CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS

Ms PENFOLD (Lyne) (16:42): The announcement by New South Wales Premier Chris Minns on Sunday 7 September to create the Great Koala National Park on the New South Wales North Coast was a day to remember for its ignorance of the science and for its base political manoeuvring to harvest votes. To underscore its malicious duplicity, it was announced on Father's Day, a day when dads who work in the North Coast timber industry were told that their jobs were in jeopardy if not lost.

What a low and cruel blow—not just to those who work in state forests but to the many downstream timber workers, many in my electorate. The announcement of the park, one that won't be created for some 18 months, included an immediate moratorium on timber harvesting across the whole 176 hectares of state forest designated to be reclassified. The premier tore up sovereign contracts with timber mills.

Trucks due to arrive the next day at my local Herons Creek mill were redirected with no notice, no care or concern for the commercial impacts and no concern for jobs—just politics. I had the wife of one of the workers speak to me, fear in her eyes, about her family's future, and I heard stories of the men brought to tears on hearing their fate. The people on the ground know all too well that declaring national parks isn't the cure-all for koalas and that the threats to them are more from urbanisation, vehicles, dogs, disease and wildfires.

Nearly 90 per cent of all crown land forest estate on the North Coast is already reserved from timber harvesting. This new park will make that closer to 95 per cent. Where is the sense in that?

We know that the annual running and maintenance costs of a national park are more than 10 times higher than those of a state forest. We know that, if these forests are not well managed with road networks and regular fuel reduction, they'll become raging infernos on hot, windy days. We know that scientifically based, comprehensive timber harvest planning systems ensure that timber production and biodiversity coexist.

Timber is not harvested where koalas live. We know that blackbutt forests provide little nutritional value for koalas, yet swathes of them are included in the new park, and research shows that koala density is mostly similar between state forests and national parks. Minns says that the park is to be funded by the Albanese government under a deal to register a dodgy carbon project under the improved native forest management method.

Serious concerns have been raised about the methodology, including additionality and adverse environmental and economic impacts. The truth reveals that this is not about koalas. It's not even about genuine conservation, and it's certainly not about jobs.

It's about money and politics.