NSW native forest logging businesses have massively inflated their financial and compensation demands to establish the Great Koala National Park, in a blatant attempt to gouge hundreds of millions of dollars from NSW taxpayers and scare the state government from establishing the GKNP.
Analysis by the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation (ACBF) has found that financial figures submitted by the industry to the NSW Government overstate payment demands by as much as 600 per cent in some cases, including $300 million in baseless compensation claims. Last week, native forest sawmills and the Australian Forest Products Association NSW released their costings on options for creating the GKNP on the mid north coast with an eye-watering $1.3bn price tag. ACBF analysis has found those costings have been heavily inflated.
“The industry has no interest in partnering with regional communities to deliver protection for Koalas and forests," ACBF chair Dr Ken Henry said. "Their goal is simply to disrupt the assessment process that has been established by the NSW Government so they can keep on logging these forests.”
As part of the proposal to establish a national park to protect endangered koala habitats in NSW, the state government is negotiating a financial arrangement to cease native forest logging within the GKNP assessment area. In negotiating the last four years of wood supply contracts, the native forest logging industry has demanded $390 million in ‘compensation’ from NSW taxpayers - more than half the sum the government spent constructing the 2024 Tweed Valley Hospital. Based on precedents, ACBF considers the industry figure to be inflated by almost $300 million.
The $390 million figure is based on a timber price of $400 per cubic metre to buy out the remaining four years of Wood Supply Agreements held by native forest mills, or $100 per cubic metre per year. The most recent buyout of similar quality timber by the NSW Government was in 2015 at a price of $219 a cubic metre for a nine-year agreement, or $24 per cubic metre per year, adjusted for inflation. Using this recent precedent, the total cost of buyouts to establish the GKNP is only $95 million – just one quarter of the native forest logging industry’s inflated $390 million claim.
“Native forest logging businesses are either trying to scare the NSW Government with inflated costs to force them to break an election promise or line their pockets with unjustified buyouts at taxpayers’ expense," Henry said. "They want the people of NSW to believe that it is too expensive to save koala habitat, and that it must therefore continue to be destroyed by their logging operations.”
The Industry Advisory Panel (IAP) represents the native forest logging industry and is one of three groups consulted on the Great Koala National Park process. In their estimates, the IAP has suggested its National Parks and Wildlife Service estate management costs are $80 per hectare. By contrast, National Parks NSW’s standard land management costs between $13 per hectare and $19 per hectare. While the ACBF supports more funding for forest management, the IAP figures are highly inaccurate.
The native forest logging division of Forestry Corp NSW has long been a loss-making industry at a heavy cost to the states’ taxpayers. Native forest logging in NSW recorded losses of $24 million across the 2022 and 2023 financial years, and recorded a loss of $10 million in just the first half of FY24. According to Forestry Corporation NSW’s 2023 annual report, the state’s native forest estate has been ‘fully impaired’ - meaning it has no commercial value. Forestry Corp NSW is yet to publish their final 2024 annual report.
“Native forest logging businesses have a clear choice – they can continue to try and disrupt legitimate efforts to protect Koala and Glider habitat with dodgy data, or they can make a constructive contribution and work with local communities and Government to secure an outcome that works for the environment and the regional economy," Henry said. "Native forest logging businesses have a lot of knowledge to contribute to the assessment process but they need to participate in good faith. It is important that they be transparent about their data sources and assumptions and be upfront about who is undertaking their modelling of wood supply, conservation impacts and financial costs.”
ACBF is advocating for the establishment of the GKNP as well as the Improved Native Forest Management carbon method. By sequestering 1.5 million tonnes of carbon each year, INFM could deliver up to $2.6bn to the NSW government and fund 1700 new, permanent jobs in forest management while preserving our native forests for future generations.
