13/09/2025

Over the past week, I have watched the spectacle that is the Great Koala National Park decision unfold and reserved my time to comment until the full picture had revealed itself. I’m genuinely not a fan of conjecture or unnecessarily stoking fear in our hard-working communities, but the reality of this decision’s handling to date would be comical if the effects weren’t so real and devastating.

What we have seen is a metro-centric Government making decisions on the lives and livelihoods of regional communities without consultation, without consideration and without a real plan. If you were not directly involved or impacted by the decision and you read Premier Minns’ glossy releases, you might be forgiven for thinking “oh, they’ve thought of everything, what a great outcome for our Koalas and Greater Gliders.” But what these media concoctions miss is the reality of the land locking on our timber industry, on the forest itself, on the economic prosperity of our communities and the knock-on effects for our building industry.

My first question to Minns is; Where are you sourcing the materials for the houses you have promised will be built right across the state? And the answer to that is ironic; it will be either imported from other States within Australia OR from countries overseas that do have the same gold-class environmental standards that we do, like Indonesia and South America. Not only is this a costly exercise that will increase the price of your average build, but its NIMBY hypocrisy is abhorrent.

My second question is; How are you managing the 176,000 hectares of old growth in order to minimise the impact of bushfires? It’s all well and good to lock up the land but leaving it untended and tracks and trails unmanaged is the equivalent of throwing the very creatures you profess to save into a tinder box and praying to God they don’t meet a matchstick.

And finally; why impose a moratorium? Is there an expectation that after decimating the industry, you’ll ‘see how things go with the koalas’ and ask them back? The cruelty of that is unfathomable. Are they supposed to wait around on Job Seeker payments indefinitely? Do you understand the impact on mental health that has for people who take pride in getting out of bed every day and working hard for their families? You’re stealing their generational identity and replacing it with ‘dole bludger’, a moniker that does not sit well with those who work the land.

Throughout the media, on the floor of State Parliament and at devastated kitchen tables across the Mid North Coast these questions are being asked. But real answers haven’t come.

Instead, we see carefully manufactured one liners meant for the inner-city electorates they pander to. Statements like “We’ve listened carefully and we’re making sure workers, businesses and communities are supported every step of the way”. Which is a lie that can be told to those who aren’t directly on the receiving end.

Watching the reactions from people in the Eastern Suburbs and across the North Shore of Sydney to the announcement is mind boggling. Essentially an outpouring of ‘Oh wonderful, isn’t that lovely, this is what WE all wanted’, like it’s a tick off their ideological checklist while not appreciating the lengths that our local timber industry goes to to be ‘best practice’ and environmentally sound. I can only imagine the impact those comments have on families who woke up without jobs on Father’s Day. Families who for generations have cared for the land on which they live and work. A similar reaction to those farming families who are being bullied and whose agricultural land is being butchered by unscrupulous Wind Farming companies who see the same people making the same comments while not feeling any direct impact. NIMBY culture is alive and thriving in NSW and it’s the regions that pay.