The Berejiklian government is embarking on the dangerous course of letting landholders decide for themselves whether they can clear many types of endangered ecosystems under new tree-clearing rules.

The Baird Coalition Government has squandered an historic opportunity to forge a new regime of conservation laws to address the many threats that face our wildlife, bushland, soils, water supplies and climate. It is well established that land clearing is a significant driver of species extinctions, soil and water degradation and greenhouse gas emissions, and new evidence of the dire threats to these vital resources is reported with increasing frequency. 

The Baird government’s biodiversity law reform agenda has suffered a major setback today with the state’s peak conservation groups withdrawing from top-level stakeholder consultations with the Office of Environment and Heritage, who are drafting the new laws. The groups are now seeking direct talks with the Ministers for Environment, Planning and Primary Industries.