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Redgum forestry decision the worst of all possible worlds
04-December-2009
MEDIA RELEASE
For immediate release
Redgum forestry decision the worst of all possible worlds
Casting about for something to define his Premiership and punish his enemies, Nathan Rees, on his last day in office announced a “new” National Park for the NSW Murray.
The ramifications of this decision are disastrous for the communities in the mid Murray, for the redgum timber industries and for the forests themselves.
The Millewa and Moira State Forests are internationally recognised as being sustainably managed both for the environment and for the controlled harvesting of timber.
It is beyond belief that a government with trains that don’t run on time, hospital waiting lists growing longer and a bank balance spiralling into the red, could sign over these revenue-generating forests to the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.
In the process NSW will lose valuable income from timber royalties and forest products processing; it will decimate the communities that rely on this industry, including redgum, flooring, furniture, sleepers and firewood and it will saddle itself with the high cost of managing yet another National Park.
The $45 million ‘structural adjustment’ package is a joke. Communities don’t want hush money, welfare or pie in the sky tourism plans that come to nothing. We have seen it all before. Look no further than Bob Carr’s purchase of Yanga Station at Balranald. Four and a half years later there are no more jobs, no more tourists and not even better environmental outcomes at Yanga; just a historic station falling into disrepair and plenty of lost opportunities.
What the redgum forests along the Murray need more than anything is for the drought to end. These are forests that re-generate by flood. No amount of government money or grand political statements can achieve that. Meanwhile, this decision sends jobs interstate and overseas and adds to greenhouse gases.
It encourages energy intensive concrete sleepers, brown coal fired power station heating and Indonesian rainforests being turned into cheap imported furniture.
The Conservation movement has welcomed the announcement. Will they argue for well maintained fire trails within these “new” national parks? Will they undertake to come to Western NSW during our long hot summers to fight any fires that break out in these forests?
Ex Premier Rees, who in his haste to play politics with our lives, subverted his own assessment process, the Natural Resources Assessment Council (due to report in a fortnight), says NSW Labor will introduce legislation next year. There is a small window of opportunity to change this decision. We will not give up without a fight.
Media contact: Debbie Brown (02) 60213264 0428 297 699