Why is NSW Still Logging the Great Koala National Park? | Video Report

The Australia Institute's new on-the-ground investigation into the logging of the promised Great Koala National Park from Senior Fellow and Contributing Editor Stephen Long.
In this new report, We speak to the people on the ground fighting to save the last refuges of some of Australia's most iconic wildlife, and uncovered the convoluted reasons why NSW is still logging native forest.
The Great Koala National Park, an election commitment from the NSW Labor Government over a decade ago, is meant to protect forests that are home to nearly one in five of the state’s wild koalas.
But the NSW government is yet to set a date for the park and is allowing native forest logging within the proposed park boundaries to continue ravaging critical habitat for the endangered greater glider and koala.
The NSW Government plans to monetise the Great Koala National Park through the use of carbon credits. As this new report explains, this push for carbon credits is creating a perverse incentive to continue logging.
This video report is presented by Stephen Long, Senior Fellow, and Contributing Editor at the Australia Institute on Gumbaynggirr land.
Filmed and edited by Yasmine Wright Gittins, Anne Kantor Fellow at the Australia Institute.
Featuring:
- Mark Graham, Ecologist
- Meredith Stanton, Environmentalist
- Uncle Micklo Jarrett, Gumbaynggirr man
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[@dianneturner4874]

Will we ever get leaders with courage? This is disgusting behaviour in this time in the world's history. Our wildlife and our bush is the most precious asset we have and it is worth fighting for.

[@greenfrog7070]

We've learned nothing in 230 years. Logging native forests in this day and age is just pure greed and irresponsible.

[@fisheyes101bob3]

Absolutely shameful

[@chrismartin2664]

They did the same in WA before the native logging ban. Not sure they’ve even stopped. Labor are blues dressed in red.

[@buzzinbilby4308]

Mining is the exeption though, Alcoa are expanding for their bauxite extraction.

[@Blackheathenly]

Why are we still logging any native forests at all? If only people knew it was being turned into chip, sent overseas and turned into cheap, nasty paper products. It's not like the wood is even used for something constructive. It must stop!

[@colinfwalters]

I am very grateful for the activists who put their freedom and bodies on the line for our forests and animals!!

[@johnwalsh3520]

Come on everyone, this is Australia. Corruption and money rules.

[@ronachadwick7908]

Are you a door mat?

[@UniversalSovereignCitizen]

Sarcasm... Lowest form of wit. ie, the lowest won't get it.

[@alisonheeley3587]

Brilliant. Thankyou so much for supporting these precious ecosystems that are being smashed. So many activists are putting their heart and soul into trying to save what is left, for all of us.

[@CamTracey]

I still don't understand how these stories aren't in the mass media, & your average Jo Blo, doesn't know, or perhaps, just doesn't care. I live in the other side of the world, & it just saddens me what has happened to my home country

[@Noddy2750]

This is one of the reasons they want social media gone They don't want us to see what the bastard are Up too 🤷

[@markwinter7287]

Because they are bias misinformation generally

[@cooperwilliams2693]

Great work and reporting. Let's hold nonsensical logging practices that cost the taxpayer and smash up our wildlife to account!

[@BazzaMarama]

Disgusting that native forest is still being logged

[@timbd87]

Pokies Minns all fart and no poo. We need leaders, not politicians, leaders that follow through

[@davidforbes9559]

Well, how about some info in these videos about how the ordinary citizen who cannot attend blocades can agitate against this. Would be helpful.

[@davespanksalot8413]

Write to this lady (see below) saying you’ll help campaign against Labor at the next election if she doesn’t do something. Also petition your local member. The Hon. Courtney Houssos, MLC 52 Martin Place SYDNEY NSW 2000 P 02 7225 6160

[@Onegreenworld1199]

Please write to Chris Minns and Penny Sharpe or call their office to express your disgust at what is happening in the Great Koala National Park. That would help so much 💚

[@auscross1859]

Only because of corruption, greed, incompetence, stupidity and consummate arrogance I suspect. Good issue to raise.

[@KirillySpace]

@ChrisMinnsMP once again, with his dystopian logic. We need to threatened koala habitat so we can sell it off as carbon credits. This is anti-koala, anti-environment & anti-integrity. Great work AI. Shared & Shared.

[@peacebaby74]

I live on the Macleay River in Kempsey.Every morning I see the trucks drive through town with logs going to the mill. I've been seeing that since 1993,the logs were bigger back then too.

[@leanneward5244]

This Australian government has a lot to answer for how cruel and evil is this there true colours are showing with this behaviour and approval to monsters 😡😡😡😡

[@matthewaston4893]

The NSW Government is Sydney-centric; too pre-occupied to act on this urgent issue.

[@evarsingersongwriter6228]

Greed , koala need our protection and trees closely link to protect them as much as possible, I keep hearing about more land owners getting their properties logged before laws are final to stop it . We live mnc and I know its true .

[@rhonddaatkins4995]

Determined I will support every protest until they stop logging Native Forests

[@BushKayakersCampingAustralia]

sickening !

[@danielmacdougall2697]

tragic

[@evarsingersongwriter6228]

Thanks for highlighting this ❤

[@Wolfstone999]

It’s the redwoods all over again

[@clarestorage]

Sadest thing ever.

[@Noddy2750]

Because their greedy horrible people

[@workerant7874]

Your taxes at work

[@theoreticallytransporting]

Hi there, don't know much about law but this is very illegal like how friendlyjordies had his house firebombed and his friend arrested by a counter terrorism command unit. Corruption is rampant

[@darryllspalding9680]

the hypocrisy we live with

[@beneltonturkeyslap]

Its pretty obvious from google timelapse...

[@kersa1995]

Unfortunately there’s too much emphasis on stopping logging rather than finding a balance, without timber there will be far more non biodegradable alternatives being used in the world or we’ll just log more in other peoples back yards overseas. We need a balance not a stop, communities and industries rely on the amazing natural wonders of the world that it gives us. There is amazing work being done with timber, look at the high rise building in Tasmania and Canberra for example!

[@nkwega]

Balance can't be attained while continuing to destroy habitat. Extinction of species means once gone they won't come back.

[@Crudmonkey211]

That’s fine, we don’t need to log native remnant forests, there are more than enough plantation forests in Australia.

[@evarsingersongwriter6228]

It shouldn’t be a chicken or egg scenario , pen pushers , and box tickers reign , from au government

[@Dedicated_to_Jesus_downunder]

Jesus said unless God had shortened the days no flesh on earth would survive- I know thats true because most people just don't care and the rate we are going everything will die. They are greedy for money or whatever they desire. The rate things are going there will be nothing left within a very short period of time. It makes me so angry and makes me cry. These forests and creatures are so precious. In my area people are cutting down the huge gums around their properties and you should see the shock on the rosellas faces - then the poor things have nothing but tv aerials, clotheslines and introduced species of trees which are useless to them to nest and feed on. Instead of a flock of Rosellas quite often its just a couple. Its devastating. I can only imagine how heartbreaking it is for these people to see it happen to koalas and greater gliders for stupid stakes and woodchips!

[@keepitreal2902]

Vote independent and end the rule of the major parties forever!

[@zeken4413]

Long live the Australian government.. what winners

[@leanneward5244]

Vote Pauline Hanson for our next PM to help stop all these corrupt evil thieves😡😡😡😡 in our country

[@markwinter7287]

Good to see sustainable native forestry continuing Never see those protesters at permanent deforestation sites for housing So previously logged and regenerated site thriving with biodiversity Those people interviewed need support counselling and other health services They are clearly a psychosocial hazards to lawfull activities

[@Carrscreekcritter]

A bit one sided on some of your material. How about telling the whole truth about timber products and about regroth of new trees for koalas

[@maxinegillman2855]

Insanity, totally irresponsible! WHY?

[@glenhollis6279]

Where do these people or greenie get there money from the tax payer it make me sick oxygen theves

[@UniversalSovereignCitizen]

Mooooo! Stop eating beef. A lot of the land is cleared for beef. But kangaroo is better... Seriously! Higher in iron and lower in cholesterol. Maybe that's why we need to have beef instead. You know, you can't live off the natural land and the things living naturally on it. Ergo, you must be a slave to the system. I could write of the intricacies of it, but I'd like this comment to go on tube.

[@galahad6001]

Yeap and I wonder how many of you all are walking on hardwood floors...

[@Womble1252]

Good point but pretty sure this is going to wood chip in OS market like Vic was doing..

[@robertmcdougall6143]

Might as well log it now and get some value out of the forest, because once it’s all locked up and none of the fire trails are maintained. (as happens in most national park reserves )The next major bushfire will not only burn through the forest, but Will also destroy the animals and the habitat that you are so desperately trying to protect, in my view, you would be better off, protesting to keep the so-called new koala Park accessible to everybody including bushfire brigade.

[@alisonheeley3587]

It is well known and researched that logging INCREASES fire risk, due to drying out of the forest, and all of the wood discarded left on the ground..

[@Womble1252]

That lock up and lack of maintenance for firetrails is a myth used over and over by one side of this debate..

[@Crudmonkey211]

Absolutely untrue. No scientific basis to that claim. Try looking for academic sources and not Murdoch rubbish.

[@jetnavigator]

Got to make way for windmills and solar farms, as The Australia Institute has successfully lobbied for. You're not a climate change denier are you?

[@alisonheeley3587]

Plenty of already logged, smashed and degraded land for those. These forest ecosystems are irreplaceable

[@itookallthenames]

Forest lost to beef production and damaged by logging dwarfs the area used for windmills and solar farms, which you’d know if you were even 1% fair dinkum about your “concern” for forests

[@user-pv9ij7dh1n]

So much for the police being on the side of justice. Police show obvious discrimination against the poor. When you look at bylaws they arrived in the form of road grants to remote town’s. The commonwealth of Australia constitution act 1901 did not allow for a third level of governance. In 1988 Australia said no to local law as it is statutory rules that conflict with criminal law. Statutory rule was designed for business operating in public places and was not intended for people going from a to b. We see how the politicians bypass the rule of law which demands there be a damaged party for there to exist a crime to the assumption that people are children of the state that requires rules evident by the new signs that say no parking between 11pm and 5am on our beaches. The rule that came about many years ago demanding an adult wear a helmet to ride a bicycle are the equivalent of saying that an adult must wear a life jacket to go swimming. This rule was passed by a politician whom had shares in a company called Stackhat. The legal system is painfully slow to the poor and as fast as lightning to the rich. We all watched Australia turn into a fascist country in the COV19 lock downs. The Government attempted ownership of every Australian by trying to force experimental vaccines onto the population against its Will which did kill and cripple Australians. We see how those fined in the lockdowns unlawfully needed to have $10000.00 just to be heard in court. Australia is falling apart. We see the criminal geoengineering operations poisoning all life below. We see the EPA paid to not search for free form Aluminium Oxide nano particles 120 microns in size. We see a Government that values money more than human life evident by the budget forecast ignorant to the obvious Genocide of Palestine. The cause of crime is poverty and the cause of poverty is usury. Yet every judge borrows from a bank that debases the value of the dollar and raises inflation making more crime in Australia. Why are Aboriginal people paying rent ? Why aren’t Aboriginal people allowed to pay off land and home instead of paying rent ? Rent money is dead money and the Aboriginal people shouldn’t be paying rent on their own land. I was shocked when an Aboriginal Elder told me that the Yaegl mission was on a 99 year lease. I literally watched rangers making money off tourists on Yaegl county and police used to move locals on. I grew up on Phillip Island and watched all the locals said no to the deselination plant in Wonthaggi . Despite the local outrage and scientific evidence the deselination plant was built on a beautiful beach. I just returned from the Northern Rivers to see a massive hole in the ground in Bass which is now a gas mine. I see dead and dying trees everywhere from all the land rape and the police always side with the money. A most horrific example of this is the story of my Aboriginal partner whom son was killed in custody by the medical practitioner. It was an obvious case of criminal negligence Manslaughter. The prison and Coroner literally covered up the Manslaughter by calling it a suicide which was literally shifted the blame from the medical practitioner to the victim which is outrageous. The killer blamed the victim for his own death and the Coroner said that there will be no criminal investigation into the matter. My partners son was a foreseeable risk and was denied mental health. Each time he tried to commit suicide the medical practitioner took him off the at-risk inmate characterisation within the critical 28 day period and against the standards for assessment and management placed my girlfriends son in a single cell with no surveillance and with the means to self harm. My partners son lost his own father from suicide and had obviously crossed over into an acute suicidal state and therefore wasn’t himself. The medical practitioner violated his duty of care many times by not contacting family and for allowing my partners son to conceal a razor blade which he used to self harm requiring hospitalisation and surgery them on the 3rd suicide attempt which was fatal the medical practitioner placed him in a single cell with hanging points against protocol. If my partners son had of received any other medical practitioner he would be alive today. A simple 28 day stay in a psychiatric hospital would have prevented 2 of his 3 suicide attempts in custody. The Government made no recommendation for justice for my partner and her family. To this day there is no justice and my partner lives in poverty. To make matters worse there was nothing done to prevent the same from happening again and every time another Black Death in custody makes the nightly news my partner and her family are forced to relive the unexceedable emotional agony. It gets worse , my partner was targeted by the housing department and was abused for having family over to arrange for the funeral. She won in a tribunal so housing fined her $10000.00 to allegedly clean up the house which my partner left because of abusive neighbours. I was charged with assault for defending my girlfriend from a verbal assault when she was grieving and the man pressing charges on me instigated the argument. He started a fight with a woman that had just lost her son for being to loud and when I pulled him up on the matter he got to close in a heated argument and my reflexes to defend myself broke his nose. He was right in my face too close to push away so I dropped my head and he walked into it. I am not sorry for that.