The Hon. Dugald Saunders, NSW Nationals Leader, The Hon. Gurmesh Singh, Shadow Minister for the North Coast, The Hon. Richie Williamson, Member for Clarence, The Hon. Michael Kemp, Member for Oxley, Joint Media Release, 8 December 2024
Nationals MPs are urging the Premier to immediately intervene and pause the assessment process for the Great Koala National Park, until claims of serious conflicts of interest are investigated.
NSW Nationals Leader Dugald Saunders, Shadow Minister for the North Coast Gurmesh Singh, Member for Clarence Richie Williamson, and Member for Oxley Michael Kemp made the calls in a letter sent to Chris Minns on Thursday.
Unions have raised concerns the firm tasked by the National Parks and Wildlife Service to assess the park’s impact on timber jobs, was also contracted by the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation to provide advice on ending the timber industry altogether.
NSW Nationals Leader Dugald Saunders said all impartiality and integrity has gone out the window.
“In the lead up to the state election Labor promised to deliver the Great Koala National Park while also protecting the jobs of timber workers, and we are asking the Premier to honour that commitment now by ensuring there is a fair and proper process here,” Mr Saunders said.
“There’s no doubt this situation has been poorly handled by the Environment Minister, so Chris Minns needs to do the right thing and hit the brakes until he can confidently explain exactly how this conflict will be managed.”
Shadow Minister for the North Coast Gurmesh Singh said the lack of communication is causing angst for the timber industry.
“The fact it’s been more than two weeks since the unions raised this issue with Penny Sharpe’s office and they still have no clarity is completely unacceptable,” Mr Singh said.
“As we approach the holiday season, this should be a joyful time, but it has instead been a miserable one for the more than 5000 workers these decisions will directly impact on the North Coast.”
Member for Clarence Richie Williamson said we cannot allow a flawed process to take away people’s livelihoods.
“This conflict has not only thrown any progress on the koala park into complete disarray, but it’s also wreaking havoc on good, hard-working families across our communities,” Mr Williamson said.
“We have taken this step because they deserve better, and they need the certainty to know they will be able to continue to put food on the table as we head into the holiday season.”
Member for Oxley Michael Kemp said the situation shows the Minns Government is more interested in a political outcome than an environmental one.
“The timber industry tried to sit down with the Government and work on this plan in good faith, only to find the cards were stacked against them from the very beginning,” Mr Kemp said.
“Not only is this plan based on a policy that’s more than a decade old, but it’s now shrouded in controversy. The Minister needs to pull up stumps and stop ignoring the up- to-date science that shows timber and koalas can and do happily co-exist.”
See: Great Koala National Park; koala; Open for Debate: Koalas
This process appears to have similar issues to the Koala State Environment Planning Policy 2019. That policy was so ethically challenged that the government had to withdraw the SEPP and start the process again. When will the environment minister and the premier ensure that all staff within the environment department are aware of and fully compliant with the Government Sector Core Values contained in Section 7 of the Government Sector Employment Act 2013.
It seems a number of core values listed below are missing from the great koala national park process. When will the environment minister sharpen up on the process deficiencies and ensure the process and bureaucrats are compliant. Transparency and public scrutiny is just one of the core values that seems to be missing in action.
It would be great to see the Independent Commission Against Corruption take a look at this process.
The core values for the government sector and the principles that guide their implementation are as follows–
(a) Consider people equally without prejudice or favour.
(b) Act professionally with honesty, consistency and impartiality.
(c) Take responsibility for situations, showing leadership and courage.
(d) Place the public interest over personal interest.
(a) Appreciate difference and welcome learning from others.
(b) Build relationships based on mutual respect.
(c) Uphold the law, institutions of government and democratic principles.
(d) Communicate intentions clearly and invite teamwork and collaboration.
(e) Provide apolitical and non-partisan advice.
(a) Provide services fairly with a focus on customer needs.
(b) Be flexible, innovative and reliable in service delivery.
(c) Engage with the not-for-profit and business sectors to develop and implement service solutions.
(d) Focus on quality while maximising service delivery.
(a) Recruit and promote employees on merit.
(b) Take responsibility for decisions and actions.
(c) Provide transparency to enable public scrutiny.
(d) Observe standards for safety.
(e) Be fiscally responsible and focus on efficient, effective and prudent use of resources.
The Environment Minister and her bureaucrats seem to be working together against honesty and transparency. Early in the term Sharpe announced drone and dog surveys for koalas across 1000 sites to get real data. She crowed about a new find of koalas at Coolah Tops.
Apparently, the bureaucrats whispered in her ear that koalas can’t be used to save the planet if people find out they’re overabundant. So everything’s gone quiet.
Except that greens and academics keep announcing ‘new finds’.
The surveys for the Great Koala Park show unnaturally high densities in the logging regrowth forests that supposedly need to be saved from logging.
The BIG conflict of interest is in the government/bureaucracy that wants to turn the State into a National Park, but has the numbers which show koalas are irrupting, not declining.
The Nationals should be calling them to account rather than trying to shift the ‘blame’ for alleged declines onto property developers.
We need to unite and expose the scam.