Back in early 2023, just prior to the NSW elections that would deliver a Minns Labor government, a senior member of the then-Opposition told this correspondent the party had a cunning plan to end the long-running battles over native logging in the state’s north.
Setting up a giant Great Koala National Park – a Labor party policy since 2015 – would be an expensive way to end the bulk of native forestry in the region. That tab, though, could be paid for by the use of carbon credits for the avoided logging, the person said during a meeting within state parliament in Sydney.
The Liberals within the soon-to-be outgoing Coalition government would later be revealed (by this correspondent, here) to have pushed for using such credits to pay out the declining logging companies still operating in state forests. Their Nationals partners, though, felled that plan.
It was later revealed (by your correspondent, here) that other hurdles needed to be cleared.
Key moderate Liberals within the Perrottet government – Matt Kean and James Griffin – had sought approval in 2022 from the Albanese government for an “improved native forestry methodology”. They would be knocked back.
