The Hon. Penny Sharpe, NSW Minister for Climate Change, Minister for Energy, Minister for the Environment, Minister for Heritage, Media Release, 3 December 2024
The NSW Nationals have today publicly announced their opposition to the Minns Labor Government’s Great Koala National Park, an election commitment to help save koalas from extinction.
Deputy Leader of the NSW Nationals and Member for Coffs Harbour, Gurmesh Singh, held a press conference with National Member for Clarence, Richie Williamson and Member for Oxley Michael Kemp today, where they were asked whether they supported the Great Koala National Park.
Journalist: For the three of you, obviously just a really simple yes or no question, do you support the Great Koala National Park?
Gurmesh Singh: No.
Michael Kemp: No.
Richie Williamson: No.
Today’s comments are just latest in the National’s damning record when it comes to Koalas, which saw the beloved native animal, or as former National Party Leader John Barilaro called them ‘tree rats’, on track to be extinct in the wild by 2050.
In the wake of these comments from the leadership of the NSW National Party, NSW Labor Minister for the Environment Penny Sharpe is calling on the Liberal Party to publicly state if they agree with their Coalition partners and will be taking a commitment to end this project to the next election.
In 2019 and 2020, National Party members threatened to leave the Party room and end the Coalition Agreement over efforts to rehabilitate the koala population.
NSW Liberal Party Leader, Mark Speakman must today come clean with the public and answer:
Do the NSW Liberal Party support the Great Koala National Park?
Does he condemn the National Party Deputy Leader’s position?
Have the Koala wars been reignited?
The Minns Labor Government is continuing work to deliver on their election commitment to establish the Great Koala National Park, with approximately 12,000 koalas living in the area under assessment for inclusion in this essential project.
Minister for the Environment, Penny Sharpe, said:
“While I’m not surprised, I am immensely disappointed. If we do not take this urgent action, there is a very real possibility that our grandchildren will never get the chance to see koalas in the wild.
“Mark Speakman urgently needs to come clean with the communities of New South Wales if the future of Koala’s will be on the line at the next election – or have the koala wars been reignited?”
See: Great Koala National Park; koala; Open for Debate: Koalas
Dear Editor, Perhaps you should ask the Minister why she is continuing with this travesty when the data show unnaturally high densities of koalas in these logging regrowth forests. Why does the Minister not ‘come clean’ with all the data showing that koalas are in no danger of extinction. They are suffering disease, dog attacks and vehicle injuries because there are too many.
These incidents of over-population exist due to logging isolating each regrowth forest. Taking away movement corridors means koalas have nowhere to go and build up and inbreed, just as any animals does. To be genetically healthy they need to travel around 35km through unbroken forests during their life cycle.
Lots of other species are also impacted by modern industrial logging, which is quite different to the private small-scale operations we used to see.
https://science.anu.edu.au/news-events/news/more-half-nsws-forests-and-woodlands-are-gone-ongoing-logging-increases-extinction
Nothing to do with corridors. Koalas continue to live in logged areas and their numbers are unaffected as shown by NSW government peer-reviewed published research.
Yes, koalas are in unnaturally high numbers and increasing in logged and unlogged forests.
Their genetics are established as soon as their parents mate, nothing to do with life-cycle. Too much soft young growth, too many young are surviving, so numbers exceed carrying capacity and they suffer disease, whilst young disperse, invade suburbia and suffer dog attacks and vehicle injuries.
NSW Environment Minister has data proving there are too many koalas and is making it worse with a Lock It Up and Let It Burn Great Koala Park.
All a cynical scam. More koalas, more suffering, more research grants and donations. The koala industry is a disgrace. Meanwhile, people who love the bush and wildlife are put on the scrapheap as their sustainable, renewable timber industry is destroyed while habitat is obliterated for fake renewables.
The number of NSW species at risk of extinction now sits at 1,043, with an additional 18 threatened species added in the past three years. A further 116 ecological communities, a group of naturally occurring plants or animals living in a unique location, are also listed as threatened.
Why is the minister for climate change, energy, the environment and heritage wasting so much time on an issue that doesn’t need fixing? The April 2024 CSIRO national koala population estimates show how wrong the 2018 ex-spurt elicitation was. It definitely gave scare mongering activists a great fund raising tool and cover for a failing NSW conservation reserve system.
Is the minister so overwhelmed, that a career in activism has failed to provide her with the necessary skills to transform a lock up and neglect regulatory and conservation management system to one based on active and adaptive management?
If the minister has her way, the regional area affected by the great koala national park is set for a social, environmental and economic drubbing at the hands of apparently clueless politicians and activist bureaucrats.
At least the local National MPs are standing up to this green bullying.
Sharpe Koala Numbers
In spring 2019, before Black Summer, Law et al. 2022 used sound recordings to estimate that there were 0.05 male koalas per hectare in Bongil Bongil National Park. Mean home range from other surveys was 40 ha. This was the densest known aggregation of koalas on NSW North Coast, in logging regrowth and plantations reserved three decades earlier to save koalas, when there were three times as many there as in unlogged forests.
Law et al. estimated male densities on a private property near Gunnedah at 0.32 per ha and mean home range from other surveys was 22 ha. In 2016, NSW Chief Scientist’s Independent Review had reported that “Recent studies within this area suggest a dramatic decline in koala populations”.
Minister Sharpe has now released new post-fire data from more reliable surveys showing that there are 0.07 koalas per ha, with average home range 15 ha, across the whole 176,000 ha Great Koala Park assessment area. Reliable data from other areas of the State have not been released by the Minister, but other sources indicate unnaturally high densities wherever reliable surveys have occurred.
The unescapable scientific conclusions from real data, rather than expert guestimates, are:
1 Koalas are not endangered. They are in much higher densities across a much wider area than when Europeans arrived.
2 Logging is not a threat to koalas.
3 The Great Koala National Park is a scam.