"The decision regarding the proposed Great Koala National Park does not belong to a single voice but should involve many voices, mostly from the Mid North Coast. The Labor Government is attempting to blindfold us. Rather than using its chance to engage in authentic discussion with the community, it chooses to undermine us by including carefully curated elitists pretending to be our community representatives": Michael Kemp MP ... A good point that needs to be spelt out in more detail.

Walk out your front door and look down the street.  If you are in the regions or in suburbia, then you will look at a tall wooden pole that carries the cables that gives you electricity. Have you taken much notice of them?  Probably not, but the pole is native hardwood harvested from a native forest where, through the application of science, it was encouraged to grow that straight.  Timber power poles are selectively harvested from regrowth or working forests.

The Australian Government signed the “30 x 30” target at COP15 of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in December 2022, with a commitment to ensure that 30 per cent of the earth’s land and sea is protected through the establishment of Protected Areas (PAs) and Other Area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs) ... The WWF has urged the Australian Government to set up a $5B Green Fund to acquire forests, productive land and reforest wheat fields.  The land needed to meet the 30:30 objective has to be “high biodiversity value” land in accordance with the Global Biodiversity Framework.

The exhibition is of Orthodox icons and includes pieces from eleven Australian collections, including six public institutions: Mona, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Art Gallery of South Australia, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, the University of Sydney, and the Abbey Museum of Art and Archaeology, Caboolture.  Contributions from private collectors come from Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney, and London ... This exhibition is the most significant collection of Orthodox icons presented in Australia that can be recalled ... The overall effect is surely one of surprise for the uninitiated and awe inspiring for the person who understands the genre.

‘Branching Out”, the latest report on the NSW native forestry by the Blueprint Institute, was released on 26 April and put into the media with the subeditorial line “Report outlines economic benefit of ending native forest logging’ ... The Report should be marked ‘draft’ given its deficiencies - and that is being generous.

The North East NSW Forestry Hub has posted a report prepared by Ernst & Young into the economic significance of the NSW hardwood industry to the NSW and Commonwealth economies ... the report shows the critical importance of the industry to the Northern NSW economy, contributing $1.8 billion in revenue, adding $700 million to NSW GDP and employing 5,700 people in the region.

The ongoing and thorough debate on Australian Rural & Regional News on native forestry in 2022, highlighted directly and indirectly a few myths on the subject. Without any order of ranking, these are: 1. Native hardwood should be harvested from hardwood plantations ...

In Australia in 2022 we saw pink sunsets. The evening of 14 December 2022 was one such occasion. Those who follow the heavens might see this as a sign of an auspicious new year present for us all ... The question is what impact Tonga Hunga might have on earth’s weather or climate?

The NSW Government last week withdrew what is referred to as the dual consent private native forestry bill, the Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Private Native Forestry) Bill 2022. It is possible in the past week to look at news headlines concerning all mainland eastern States and see open contemptuous rampant hypocrisy at play.  But the conduct around this Bill is possibly the better example.

What a stuff up! The Solomon Islands entering a security agreement with the Chinese Government has all the ring of the fiasco of the signing of the Darwin Port agreement with a Chinese company with very close ties to the Chinese Government. The pattern for both agreements from an Australia point of view is remarkable similar, probably best called the ‘do nothing syndrome’.

On 15 March 2022, NSW Budget Estimates Portfolio Committee No 4 saw Justin Field MLC and David Shoebridge MLC once again argue the closure of selective harvesting of native forests in NSW.

Blockade Australia activities which stopped Sydney peak hour traffic on 27 June 2022 is an experience which timber harvesting contractors have been confronting for years. In the week ended August 5, 2022, on five successive days, protestors entered timber harvesting sites in Northern NSW and placed their personal safety in danger to such an extent that work ceased.

Some stories just keep on giving! The ambush of Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the National Press Club on Monday 31 January by Peter van Onselen raises many questions. The first point is that we have only van Onselen’s word that the message was sent by Gladys Berejiklian and that a Minister was the recipient and replied. Van Onselen does not say whether the Minister is a Federal Minister or a State Minister.

Chris Jordan AO is the Commissioner of Taxation. He was previously Chair of KPMG and partner in Charge of the New South Wales Tax and Legal Division of KPMG. Commissioner Jordan has expressed a desire for ATO officers to carry guns.

The NSW Minister for Local Government, The Hon Shelley Hancock MP, a week out from the local government elections released a consultation paper.  The paper concerns the operation of the Code of Conduct provisions of the Local Government Act. These are contentious provisions both in their terms and in their operation ... The Code of Conduct provisions are a bureaucratic supervision of community-elected representatives.

Gordon Wilson and Kookaburra. Several issues need to be addressed in response to the Environmental Defenders Office press release about the legal challenge to the NSW forest logging agreement ... timber is a renewable resource ... native forestry products come from "working forests" ... native forestry uses only a very small portion of Australia's native forests ... native flora and fauna co-exist with forestry

In 1809, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote: None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. On 24 July 2021, in Sydney, the NSW Deputy Health Officer, Jeremy McNulty, was asked at a press conference why approved rapid antigen Covid-19 tests were not used.

History is a fascinating subject. But it takes work and extended recall. It contains lessons. Particularly about humans and States. George Santayana wrote: “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” (1905) and from Winston Churchill in the House of Commons: “those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it” (1948). These two were not the only people to muse on history, supposedly repeating itself.

In July 2021, timber mills in NSW have or are running out of timber in the middle of an Australian and international timber shortage, where timber supply comes from the NSW State Government. People have or are about to lose their jobs. These are real people. The little people or the battlers. Not the high paid executives of multinational companies. On 2 July 2021, one of these battlers in desperation called the ABC in Tamworth. The company for whom he worked had run out of wood and could not get any from the State supplier, because it was all going to one big company, the mate of the Government. Boral.

Readers may have noticed stories concerning Minister Pavey handing the operation of graveyards to the NSW Public Service ... The Jewish faith and the Islamic faith are supporting the Roman Catholic Church which is in Court with the Government. The People of the Book have united in the issue of looking after the dead.

Anzac Day in Sydney in 2021 saw the unthinkable occur. The 7th Division Banner was not marched. This is the Division of the Australian Army that fought the Kokoda Track. This is the banner that in recent years was preceded by a jeep in which sat a representative of the New Guinea Highland tribes who provided the ‘fuzzy wuzzy’ angels. It made the news every night of Anzac Day in the past decade. Not a mention of this momentous event.

Just a ‘toilet roll' incident is an interesting metaphor to use in respect to the critical timber shortage occurring within the Australian and world-wide construction industry.

The NSW State Government announced on 10 March 2021 that The Minister for Planning will issue a new section 9.1 direction (to the Koala SEPP) to ensure that only the Minister, and not councils, will be empowered to rezone land used for primary production to an environmental zone (E zone), or to rezone land currently in rural zones 1, 2 and 3 to other rural zones.

New South Wales Government Minister Kean, Minister for the Environment, constantly says he "follows the science". A noble ideal, but only if what he is sprouting is science.

The University of Newcastle has released an economic impact assessment and environmental benefit analysis of the Great Koala National Park proposed for the mid north coast of New South Wales. ARR.News has received a critical analysis of the report to which the University has responded. Over to you.