‘Greenwashing’ biodiversity credit proposal for NSW national parks dropped amid overhaul
A Perrotet government proposal to allow management work in New South Wales national parks to generate biodiversity credits to compensate for habitat destruction caused by development elsewhere has been dropped amid a broader overhaul of the state’s national parks.
That change, which the National Parks Association labelled an attempt at “statewide greenwashing”, was stripped out of the bill after negotiations between the government, opposition and crossbench.
The NSW parliament has now passed the bill on laws governing the state’s national parks, which also introduced improvements to ecological monitoring and protection of environmentally sensitive areas across the parks system.
Also removed was a proposal that would have given the environment minister greater powers to approve activities within parks – such as new visitor infrastructure – that were otherwise inconsistent with park management plans.
The passage of the bill on Tuesday night means necessary changes to legislation to expand the Gardens of Stone national park can occur.
Labor’s environment spokesperson, Penny Sharpe, said the decision to remove some of the more substantial proposed changes was a welcome one.
She said stripping out the proposal to allow national parks to supply biodiversity offsets was appropriate at a time when the offsets scheme was subject to multiple inquiries as a result of a Guardian Australia investigation.
“In its original form the national parks bill was a Trojan horse for far-reaching changes to the National Parks & Wildlife Act that would give the minister unfettered power to allow development in national parks & undermine biodiversity conservation across NSW,” she said. Changes to allow the minister to sell carbon credits in parks and reserves were passed but with amendments to make them subject to a review in two years.
A plan to establish a fund to accept private donations for parks was also agreed, but with limitations on where the money can go. This ensures the fund does not become a means for funding day-to-day government work to run the conservation system.
Cate Faehrmann, environment spokesperson for the NSW Greens, said the expansion of the Gardens of Stone national park was the result of decades of work by dedicated environmental campaigners.
“Thankfully, the bill that passed the upper house removed the worst elements of the bill and finally saw the Gardens of Stone protected,” she said.
“The bill in its original form re
vealed the Liberal party’s true agenda to commercialise our national parks.
Thankfully, that agenda was stopped in its tracks.”
The independent MP Justin Field said the government had listened to concerns about the initial bill.
“We’ll end up with a far better outcome, securing the Gardens of Stone reservation, ensuring the integrity of national parks planning and creating a philanthropic fund with appropriate controls to garner public financial support for expanding and improving the parks network,” he said.
Comment has been sought from the NSW environment minister Matt Kean.