NORTH COAST ENVIRONMENT COUNCIL

FOREST ALLIANCE NSW

MEDIA RELEASE June 26, 2024

BUILDING BACK BETTER TO BE APPLAUDED -NOT CRITICISED

“Logging industry and NSW Nationals are putting profits for a few ahead of safety and energy security for regional communities,” said NCEC Vice-President Susie Russell.

The response follows NSW Nationals leader Dugald Sunders urging the Minns Labor Government to reverse a decision by regional electricity distributor Essential Energy to replace ageing and failing timber power poles across its network with more fire resilient fibreglass composite poles.

Susie Russell said, “The safety and energy security of North Coast communities matters.

“It’s clear that timber power poles are not the best choice for our community. This move by Essential Energy is about protecting our region from the impacts of severe bushfires and should be applauded.

“A significant portion of the state’s timber power pole supply has come from areas proposed for the Great Koala National Park. It’s fantastic that Essential Energy is moving to a non-timber alternative that is better for the community and will leave the trees standing to support the creation of the Great Koala National Park.”

Justin Field from the Forest Alliance NSW said, “The only explanation for the timber industry and NSW Nationals to oppose this move is that they are trying to protect logging profits at the expense of community safety and resilience.

“The sad reality is that not only are timber power poles more susceptible to fire, the logging of native forests to take these trees makes those forests more prone to high intensity fires further increasing risks to those local communities. It’s a lose lose.

“There are many alternatives to logging native forests. We use plantation pine for house frames and people are increasingly using composite decking and flooring for improved fire resilience and reduced maintenance. It makes sense to go with materials more suited to our conditions.

“Currently, most trees taken from native forests end up as cardboard or exported as wood chips. It’s incredibly wasteful so what we can do to move to alternatives like composite materials is a win-win,” Justin Field said.

Susie Russell said, “After the 2019/20 fires many of our communities were left without reliable power due to the number of timber poles burnt and the time it took to restore the network. For fire impacted communities $1.54 per year per household, which is what the electricity regulator has determined it will cost, is a small expense to protect against future power disruptions and to build our community’s resilience.

“Taking timber from native forests is expensive and heavily subsidised by taxpayers to enable the industry to remain profitable so households are already paying for an inferior product which leaves their critical power supply more vulnerable.

“There is lots of talk about building back better after the fires. Good on Essential Energy for acting to do their part to keep regional communities safer,” Susie Russell said.

These incinerators have been found to have disastrous health impacts on communities and emit huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, microplastic pollution, persistent organic pollutants and hazardous ash waste – they are environmental disasters, do nothing to solve our waste problem and have no place in our communities.

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While many were lauding last week’s announcement by NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe that ‘Koala Hubs’ inside the proposed Great Koala National Park (GKNP), would not be logged, local conservationists were dismayed at the flip side of the announcement, that logging in the rest of the area Labor has been promising to protect for almost a decade, will continue until the end of 2024.

“The North Coast Environment Council and our member groups in the area of the GKNP are extremely concerned that what the Environment Minister appears to be saying is logging will continue, at the same intensity, for at least another year, while ‘assessments’ are done,” said NCEC Vice-President Susie Russell. 

Koala seen in Diehappy State Forest being planned for logging and not protected by the NSW Government’s announcement.

At its recent General Meeting, the North Coast Environment Council (NCEC) were honoured to present their prestigious ‘TOGA’ (Triumph Over Greed Award) to John Edwards and the Clarence Environment Centre (CEC) for their work in exposing a number of serious breaches of environmental legislation associated with exploration licenses for copper mining at Cangai near Jackadgery in the Clarence catchment.

As a result of the work of CEC, the NSW Resources Regulator has suspended all operations on two exploration licences held by mining companies Total Mineral Pty Ltd and Total Iron Pty Ltd. Exploration Licences 8625 and 8635 were being operated by Castillo Copper Limited, about 45km northwest of Grafton.

John Edwards and wife Patricia, receive the TOGA on behalf of Clarence Environment Centre.

Documents obtained under Freedom of Information show the NSW Government ignored the advice of its own koala experts when selecting its so-called koala reserves.

“Now we know that the Government had maps of where the koalas actually are... they called them Koala Hubs... and deliberately chose not to protect those areas,” said NCEC Vice-President Susie Russell.

“The failure of today's deal by the Liberal-National Coalition and the ALP on a Renewable Energy Target to exclude native forests from being fed into power stations is a major blow for both the genuine renewable energy industry and the future health of our region's forests” said NCEC spokesperson Susie Russell.