Federal minister gives green light for koala habitat to be bulldozed for Port Stephens quarry
Conservationists accuse Sussan Ley of choosing ‘rocks over koalas’ after she approved 52 hectares of habitat destruction to expand Brandy Hill quarry
Lisa Cox
Tue 27 Oct 2020 03.46 EDT
More than 50 hectares of koala habitat in the New South Wales town of Port Stephens is set to be cleared after the federal environment minister, Sussan Ley, approved the expansion of a quarry.
The minister, whose decision comes as the government considers the koala for an official endangered listing, said on Tuesday the department’s assessment found the development would “not rob the area of critical koala habitat”.
Local campaigners and conservationists have described the decision as heartbreaking coming after the state’s worst bushfire disaster this past summer. They said environmental conditions that require the developer to plant new trees were “a fig leaf”.
Earlier this year, a NSW parliamentary inquiry found koalas would be extinct in the state by 2050 unless governments took urgent action to address habitat loss.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/27/federal-minister-gives-green-light-for-koala-habitat-to-be-bulldozed-for-port-stephens-quarry
Sussan Ley
(Useful images for someone constructing an effigy.)
= new reply since forum marked as read
