Labor Premier Chris Minns and Environment Minister Penny Sharpe are facing criticism from multiple sides of politics over their handling of the Central West Orana Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) following revelations that scores of native vegetation had been cleared to make way for a renewable energy project.
An estimated 670 trees have been cleared, including critically endangered hollow bearing trees which make up habitat for koalas, glossy black cockatoos, little eagles, squirrel gliders and eastern pygmy possums. This destruction of native vegetation has resulted in the displacement of dozens ofthreatened baby birds.
Greens MP and spokesperson for the environment Sue Higginson said:
"I am so sick of the State Significant Development pathway and the defective biodiversity offsets system being used as a battering ram to push all kinds of development through the planning system at nature's expense, and it's tragic that we now add renewable energy infrastructure to the list. It doesn't have to be like this, the fact is the Minns Labor Government has chosen it to go like this,"
"The destruction of critical habitat and tree cover we are seeing now in the Central Orana REZ is just the beginning and it's just not necessary. Mid-West Regional Council had been working tirelessly with the developer ACEREZ to find a different pathway that would not require the removal of 670 habitat trees, but the developer and the NSW Government have essentially ignored them,"
"The developer has quite literally bulldozed past environmental protections and massacred the habitat of threatened species, and the best they can offer in response to questioning is a media release about biodiversity offsets,"
"The biodiversity offset system is broken and has been for a long time. It is so broken that it allows habitat destruction at such a scale that injured baby birds are filling up vet hospitals across the region. The Minns Labor Government had the chance to fix the offsets system last year and it chose not to. I moved amendments to the biodiversity offsets laws, and with the Minns Labor Government we had the numbers to get better laws for nature, but they chose not to. I am afraid things are going to get worse, not better."
"We know the biggest environmental threat we face is climate breakdown and this is why we are transitioning to renewables, so to destroy nature in the name of protecting nature doesn't square. NSW Labor's approach risks undermining public confidence in the transition and jeopardising the urgent need for climate action,"
"Labor Premier Chris Minns has an opportunity to demonstrate leadership here, to sit down with the community and to demonstrate how we can get renewables right. Governments need to accelerate the renewable energy transition, but that involves having strong safeguards for nature and for communities in place," Ms Higginson said.
