Bellingen Shire councillors have voted 4-3 in favour of supporting, in principle, the formation of a Great Koala National Park and to seek further information and advice on the subject.
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The motion, put by Mayor Dominic King, was in response to a NSW National Parks Association proposal to convert existing state forests in the Nambucca, Bellingen and Coffs Harbour local government areas into a new Great Koala National Park, adding 175,000 hectares to the existing 140,000 hectares of protected areas.
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The Mayoral minute that was passed sets out a process for gathering further information from affected industries and other levels of government, and investigating how the park and transitional arrangements might be funded.
An attempt by Cr Desmae Harrison to amend the motion to add a clause relating to the rights of landowners on adjoining properties with koala sightings lapsed due to lack of a seconder, after some confusion about what the extra clause actually meant and how it would be implemented.
The full motion that was passed reads as follows:
That Council:
1. Support in principle the establishment of the Great Koala National Park.
2. Seek advice on the implications of the proposed Great Koala National Park from the Forestry Corporation of NSW and local industries such as sawmills.
3. Seek advice and clarification from the NSW Government and Opposition Leader, the Hon. Luke Foley MP on their respective positions’ on the proposed Great Koala National Park and within that the funding which would be made available to support the proposed Great Koala National Park, including arrangements for funding assistance and transition arrangements for any local workers and businesses who may be affected by the conversion of State Forests to National Park as well as the additional jobs which the proposed Great Koala National Park would create.
4. Be presented with a further report outlining responses received.
5. That the further report to council give consideration to seeking funding from the NSW government for the formation of the propose Great Koala National Park including the effects of the current industry, creation of new industries, environmental impacts, improvements and opportunities.
In recommending the motion, Cr King spoke eloquently about the need to be brave in embracing necessary changes.
“When do we make a decision about the survival of our biodiversity in this region?” he asked. “Is it when we get to the last few hundred koalas? Is that when we make a decision to say something’s going wrong, or do we get off on the front foot? This council is a proactive council. This council is loved by all its residents because of the biodiversity, because of the clean rivers, because of all those issues. We need to be able to transition into a new way. And we need to be brave about that.”
Cr King said it was sad that some industries would be adversely affected but that new opportunities needed to be pursued.
“I would love to see innovation come into this community in terms of how we do things better. To continually just go down the same track because that’s what we’ve done is on a path to destruction. We live in one of the most spectacular, biodiverse regions on this planet, and we are its custodians.”
Cr King noted that the GKNP was supported by the Labor party and was not just a Greens initiative. If Labor comes to government, and appropriate funding is available, ‘we see (the GKNP) as a winner’, not just in terms of koala protection but also in terms of preserving water catchment quality.
“It doesn’t mean that every part of the forest is locked up,” Cr King said. “There will be parts that still can be harvested. But we need to look at how we can do that better. We can’t just continue on the same, because those forests now have already been damaged enough. We need to say – what do we really value and what are we doing for the future generations?”