Environmental vandals who are illegally clearing land are escaping this government's tough on law and order agenda, the NSW Greens said today.
“The Auditor-General’s report released today shows the government is a toothless tiger on landclearing,” said Greens MP and justice spokesperson Lee Rhiannon.
“The report shows Queensland has undertaken 30-50 prosecutions a year, with a 90 percent success rate, but NSW has been averaging five a year since 1999, with no successful contested prosecutions,” said Ms Rhiannon.
“Until there are successful prosecutions by the Department of Natural Resources any initiatives to stop landclearing will be worthless.
“Minister Ian Macdonald has a conflict of interest because he is responsible for both primary industry and regulating farmers.
“The Greens call on the Government to put its teeth into this issue by moving responsibility for compliance with native vegetation laws to the Department of Environment and Conservation.”
Landclearing has caused unprecedented environmental damage in NSW, including dryland salinity and wildlife extinctions, said Greens Upper House MP and environment spokesperson, Ian Cohen.
“The Labor Government has broken its key promise made to voters at the last election to halt land clearing. The Auditor-General’s report shows that a staggering 30,000 hectares of land was illegally cleared in 2005 alone, on top of 44,000 hectares of legal clearing.
“That promise is well and truly broken.”
Futher information: Claire O'Rourke 0409 810 139
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