The Government has finally released its long awaited and highly anticipated response to the Ken Henry Review - the five year statutory review into the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016, tabled in August 2023.
The Henry Review final report provided damning insight into how current policy settings are accelerating species and habitat loss in New South Wales and found not only is the Act failing, but actively harming biodiversity in the state. The Review Panel found that "the present Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 is not meeting its primary purpose of maintaining a healthy, productive and resilient environment, and is never likely to do so."
Greens MP and spokesperson for the environment Sue Higginson says "It's unbelievable we have waited so long for a response that essentially amounts to a promise to fix the dreadfully broken offsets system many months from now,"
"The response acknowledges the depth and breadth of the extinction and biodiversity loss crisis in NSW, then assumes nature can wait for the development of more plans and strategies, but it can't. A crisis requires an emergency response. It requires getting in an ambulance and driving a steady clear route as fast as you reasonably can to the recovery destination and the repair work starts immediately,"
"The Government has not responded to the clarion call of the Ken Henry review. While the response commits to roll back some of the worst aspects of the war on nature waged by the Liberal National Coalition in 2015, it will not do what is required to reverse the biodiversity loss trajectory across every bioregion of NSW,"
"The only way that will happen is if the Government does what Henry recommended. Namely, that strong biodiversity conservation and repair laws and policies take primacy over planning, development and land use laws and policies. It is clear from this response that the NSW Labor Government is not willing to do that."
"It's really concerning that the Government on the one hand acknowledges the biodiversity loss crisis and on the other hand say we will continue to destroy biodiversity, albeit under an improved offsets system,"
"It's very Labor on the environment, like their commitment to create a Great Koala National Park in the State's north, only to have them log it first. The bottom line is that NSW Labor will not turn around the biodiversity loss and extinction crisis in NSW,"
"It's a very sad day for nature in NSW," Ms Higginson said.
