Southern NSW National Park bill falls well short - 12 October 2005

Greens MLC Ian Cohen says the National Park Estate (Reservations) Bill 2005,:which creates new national park areas in Southern NSW, fails to deliver what the community needs.

The legislation is expected to pass the Upper House today.

“The legislation creates new national park areas in upper Deua, Monga, Murramarang but overall only 5530 hectares of additional forests are protected,” Mr Cohen said.

“The community wanted an initial 25 000 hectares of iconic forest protected. The Government has failed to deliver a bare 20% of this.

“What protection of forest has been granted has come at a very high price. The Government has said there will be no overall reduction in woodchip volumes. This means of course that the remaining unprotected native forest will be logged faster and more intensively.

“The new national park areas are a fraction of what is needed.

“If the Government really wanted to protect jobs and deliver good environmental outcomes it would close the Eden woodchip. The mill is driving the destruction of the native forests for a low value-jobs poor use of the timber,” Mr Cohen said.

Further Information: Ben Oquist 02 92303305 or 0419704095