23 June 2026
New funding to help prevent the extinction of threatened and endangered wildlife in the budget is a much-needed investment, but stopping critical habitat destruction in the first place should be the priority, according to the Nature Conservation Council of New South Wales (NCC).
Today, NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey announced the NSW Budget 2026-27, including threatened species protection and funding to upgrade and repair infrastructure in NSW National Parks.
The state's leading environmental advocacy organisation, the NCC, says any increased spending for wildlife and protected areas is welcomed, but funding for nature needs to go further and preventing habitat destruction must be put on the priority list.
Quotes attributed to NCC CEO Jacqui Mumford:
"The $221 million to deliver a new era of threatened species protection is a commendable investment in conservation.
"This funding boost reflects the huge and growing challenge to save our beloved biodiversity, with over one thousand species now threatened with extinction in NSW.
"But while funding feral animal control, landscape restoration, weeding and tree planting is good, it must be underpinned by stronger laws because broadscale habitat clearing and forest logging is out of control.
"The obvious place to start protecting habitat is to end native forest logging, an industry so unviable it cost the budget $32m in subsidies last year.
"The NSW Government also needs to address the laws that have allowed land clearing to double over the past decade, otherwise our native species don't stand a chance.
"We welcome any money toward restoring landscapes for at-risk species, but what we really want to see is protection of these landscapes before they are destroyed.
"An end to native forest logging and law reform to rein in broadscale habitat clearing is what is truly needed to protect our growing list of threatened species in NSW.
"We know habitat clearing is the biggest threat to biodiversity loss in NSW, and yet it remains out of control.
"Prevention is better than a cure."
Other measures:
The lion's share of the $561m Transport Affordability Package is unfortunately directed to private vehicles, while public transport users miss out on most of the funding, despite the fare freeze.
The $6.5bn electric bus and depot funding shows the government is serious about reaching its targets to electrify NSW's bus fleet (by 2035 in Sydney and 2050 statewide).
The Home Energy Saver scheme is a great help for households to cut energy bills and help the climate. Energy standards for rental properties remains a crucial gap.
Continued funding to roll out the state's renewable energy zones is welcome, with another $225m released from the rolling $2.5bn Transmission Acceleration Facility helping to meet climate targets, keep the lights on, and bring down electricity prices as coal power stations retire.
