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The New South Wales government has been accused of reigniting the "koala wars" in the lead-up to next year's state election.
Key points:
- The NSW government wants to tweak farm forestry rules
- Critics say the move could reignite the "koala wars" that threatened to split the Coalition in 2020
- Councils and green groups have criticised the plan
Tensions over koala policy threatened to tear the Coalition apart in 2020.
Now the government has introduced a bill that will strip local councils of their ability to regulate private logging, and extend private forestry approvals from 15 years to 30.
'Broken promise'
Former Liberals MLC Catherine Cusack, who was part of a parliamentary inquiry into koala populations and habitat, described the move as a slap in the face.
"I consider it dishonourable, a broken promise by them not to do this," she said.
"This is similar to legislation that was introduced in 2020, which I crossed the floor to refer to an inquiry.
"At that time the government completely scrapped the legislation and told us that it would not go down this track and it would not return to parliament with legislation like that again.
"Backflipping and introducing new legislation that will accelerate the destruction of koala habitat absolutely breaks my heart."
The proposed legislation has also been criticised by the president of Local Government NSW, Darriea Turley, who said it had been rushed into parliament without consultation.
"This bill undermines the crucial role councils play in the regulation of private forestry operations," she said.
"It will have devastating impacts on important native habitats, particularly for koalas and many of the state's other threatened species.
"In addition, it removes the ability of councils to consider the broader impacts of forestry operations on their communities, such as noise, traffic, amenity, and infrastructure impacts."
Koalas 'a political tool', says minister
The NSW Minister for Agriculture, Dugald Saunders, said it made sense to have farm forestry plans overseen by Local Land Services (LLS).
"Where you have another layer, and a council layer, it means that councils then can't actually do some of the things we need them to do, which is approve DAs to get housing done," he said.
"LLS experts … know what they're doing; councils struggle to have that same expertise."
Mr Saunders said koalas were being "used as a convenient political tool" by the government's critics.
"These new codes that we've brought in actually do more to protect koalas," he said.
"If you're a local landholder and you've got koalas, you love them, and they're only there because you've got a great habitat.
"This is a Coalition promise to make sure that we're doing everything that we can to support timber as an industry.
"It's a way of doing it sustainably and managing the environment as opposed to importing timber, which we do import about 40 per cent from places like Brazil where they do log old-growth forests."
NEFA criticism
The policy has been described as a "disaster" by the North East Forest Alliance (NEFA).
NEFA spokesman Sean O'Shannessy accused the Coalition of stripping away "the last remaining protections for our koalas in our native forests be they public or private".
"Our koala populations are in free fall, they have halved over the past 20 years," he said.
"They are, by the best available science, predicted to be extinct by 2050.
"This is a disaster for Australia, which [the minister] brushes off by saying we need the timber.
"The only reason we don't have enough plantation timbers in NSW to be able to supply all of our timber needs is because we've had the National Party in government for the past 12 years and they've stood on the neck of the plantation timber industry."
The Bill is due to go before the parliament for further debate next week.