DEAR News Of The Area,

I WAS wondering if we are getting good value for our land management in NSW.

Delving into the websites of NSW Government departments for facts and figures is a frustrating experience as it appears that the upper echelons of the government and public service are masters of the art of obfuscation.

According to the government website the total area of national parks in NSW is 7.6 million hectares.

This includes the large inland parks, the alpine areas, and the 2.8 million hectares in the east coast forests.

The 2023-2024 annual budget for the Office of Environment and Heritage is $1.8 billion of recurrent expenditure plus about $500 million in capital expenditure.

This includes management of parks and reserves plus a few other things.

Using simple arithmetic this indicates that the management of National Parks costs the taxpayer between $230 and $300 per hectare every year.

This figure is probably a bit too high but it is difficult to get a breakdown of costs from this mega department.

In 2022-23 that other land manager, the Forestry Corporation managed about two million hectares and lost $15 million in revenue due to wet weather.

The net cost to the taxpayer was about $7.50 per hectare.

We are allowed to camp for free and take along our dogs in a state forest.

We are allowed four wheel driving, trail bike riding, horse riding, and a lot of other activities.

If national parks are supposed to be so good for animals, how is it that a recent comprehensive survey using sound recording found no difference in koala numbers between national park and harvested state forest?

This survey was carried out impartially and scientifically using a statistically valid methodology to remove bias.

For those who are interested, it was published in ‘Nature’, the world’s leading multidisciplinary peer reviewed science magazine, in March 2022 and was by Dr Brad Law and others.

It did not rely on “anecdotal evidence“ like so much of the information on the net these days.

The NSW State budget has allocated $80 million dollars for the Great Koala Park.

If it is the proposed 175,00 hectares then it will be at an additional cost to the taxpayer of $457 per hectare.

Do we really need any more National Parks?

Regards,
Bernard COGHLAN,
Coffs Harbour.