In August 2023, Ken Henry handed down a comprehensive report into our biodiversity and nature protection laws in NSW. It outlined the chilling truth about how our laws are failing nature and it provided a blueprint of how to fix them. Finally, almost 12 months later, the Government has responded to The Henry Review and despite promising to stop the extinction crisis, the critical elements of the review haven’t been addressed.

The Henry Review found that our laws are not only failing to protect nature, they are driving the extinction crisis. The review recommended that our laws change so that they protect and repair the environment and that these laws be given primacy over other laws that facilitate the destruction of the environment for development and land clearing.

NSW Labor have not responded to the clarion call of The Henry Review. They seem to think the crisis can wait for them.

They have only gone part way to meeting some of the recommendations, and they have completely ignored other findings - including some of the most critical ones.

Under Labor’s plan laws that prioritise environmental protection in NSW will not be given primacy over laws that facilitate environmental destruction. It will in most part be business as usual. I can’t describe how much of a missed opportunity this is and how gutted this makes me feel. Without the environment being prioritised, the biodiversity and extinction crisis cannot be slowed, let alone stopped and turned around.

The Henry Review made strong recommendations about the need for NSW  to move to a nature positive approach, in line with the Global Biodiversity Framework. What the Minns Labor Government has responded with is a terribly weak version that will apparently seek to be net positive for nature over time, but will not stop the degradation and destruction of biodiversity in the short term. This ignores the breadth of the problems that nature faces and the fact that we are experiencing tipping points in ecosystem decline and dysfunction. We are in a crisis which demands a solution to the short, mid and long term drivers of this emergency. Nature can not wait for NSW Labor to play power politics.

One of the most significant failures of the Labor Government’s response is that native forest logging was not mentioned once. Habitat destruction through the industrial logging of our public forest estate is a key threatening process that is driving the loss of biodiversity and the extinction crisis. Native forest logging is pushing forest dependent species too close to extinction. Despite the findings of The Review, the need to end native forest logging was not even mentioned in the response.

The Labor Government has committed to introducing changes to the biodiversity offsets and credits system and providing stronger rules around land clearing. Naturally, I welcome this commitment and will work hard to ensure these changes are as positive and strong as possible. 

We need to tell the Premier and the Minister for the Environment, they have missed the mark - and we expect and need better.

If we are to turn the extinction crisis around and move to a truly nature positive framework we need strong laws, to end native forest logging and to build our protected area network. We must commit to protect at least 30% of the land and water of NSW by 2030.