The Australian Workers' Union and the Timber, Furnishing & Textiles Union have today joined forces to condemn the NSW Government's announcement to lock up an additional 176,000 hectares of working forest to establish a "Great Koala National Park."
The unions say the area – some five times larger than the 37,000 hectares recommended by the Government's own Industry Advisory Panel – will devastate regional communities, cost hundreds of jobs and risk thousands more across the state's $3 billion hardwood timber industry.
AWU NSW Secretary Tony Callinan said the Government's decision represents a betrayal of working families and regional communities that have sustainably managed these forests for generations.
"Minister Sharpe has chosen to ignore the government's own expert panel's advice and to bow to an irrational, deep green ideological agenda that will gut regional towns on the NSW mid north coast," Mr Callinan said.
"The Industry Advisory Panel, which the Government itself established, recommended 37,000 hectares as a balanced approach that would protect koalas while preserving jobs. Instead, the Government has gone nearly five times larger, showing complete disregard for the workers and communities who will pay the price for this decision.
"The latest CSIRO research shows koala numbers in NSW are stable and thriving. This fundamentally undermines the Government's justification for such an extreme expansion,"
TFTU NSW Secretary Alison Rudman said:
"Every timber worker's pay cheque flows directly into small regional economies. When you kill the timber industry, you kill the towns. Businesses close, schools lose students, health services withdraw, and entire communities wither away. We've seen it happen before, yet the government seems determined to repeat those mistakes.
"This is political expediency at its worst. The Environment Minister as the leader of the Government in the Upper House has opted for a cynical trade-off over good jobs, good science, and good policy.
The Government's own consultation process found timber workers in the region earn, on average, twice as much as those in tourism. No family can absorb a 50% pay cut in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis—and let's be clear, there are no real alternative jobs waiting for these workers."
Mr Callinan continued:
"This is not about being pro or anti koala. We all want to see koalas thrive. What we're against is the unnecessary destruction of an entire industry and the communities it supports when there is a science-based option that achieves both conservation and a viable timber industry.
"Forestry Corporation has a good track record of managing large areas of public land in NSW, including managing the bush risk. Without a forestry industry we are concerned that that the risk of catastrophic wildfires that kill all wildlife, including koalas will be increased."
While maintaining the decision should be reversed, the unions have presented the NSW Government with a comprehensive package of minimum requirements for any workers displaced by the park's establishment.
"It is lunacy to kill these jobs, but if the government is determined to do so our unions intend to do everything we can to ensure that the displaced workers are compensated fairly and assisted to gain alternate jobs," Mr Callinan said.
