The
National Parks & Wildlife Service of NSW (NPWS) is in its fiftieth
year. To “celebrate” the occasion the
NSW Government is in the process of re-structuring this important organisation
which is responsible for the management
of the national parks estate and the protection of our state’s biodiversity.
Politicians
and bureaucrats have claimed that the restructure will improve the management
of the national parks estate.
How can
it when the service’s budget has been drastically cut? How can it when fire-fighting resources and
expertise are being depleted? How can it
when experienced and well-qualified officers are losing their jobs or being
demoted to what are essentially clerical roles at much lower rates of pay?
And what
will be the impact of these changes on the Clarence Valley which has an area of
2,262 sq km of the national parks estate in its area ?
Grafton
has been an administrative centre for NPWS for many years. That function will be transferred to Coffs
Harbour along with some of the positions currently based in the town. Figures on job losses in Grafton vary but it
looks to be from seven to nine skilled positions.
One of
the major issues relates to the loss of Pest Management Officers (PMOs) around
the state. In our region from around
Taree to the Queensland border the staffing will be reduced from 3.2 equivalent
full time positions to one. And that
position will be largely a desk job with a much-reduced salary. This makes no sense at all given the problems
in this large area with feral pests such as pigs, foxes and wild dogs as well
as the plant pests.
The
impacts here and around the state for
the proper management of the national parks estate (which includes Nature
Reserves as well as National Parks) will be significant. The effects on biodiversity protection will
also be significant. And there will be associated impacts on national parks
tourism which is important to many local economies including the Clarence
economy.
Another
major issue from a people perspective rather that an environment perspective is
the appalling toll this drawn-out and unfair process is taking on the National
Parks officers whose jobs will be lost or who will be demoted. It is very
unlikely that the government or the bean-counters running their cost-cutting venture have any concern about
this.
It
should be remembered that when the government’s budget was brought down in June
there was much fanfare about the $4.5 million surplus and what a good job the government
was doing in managing the NSW economy. Despite this record surplus, the
government is slashing $121 million from the NPWS budget.
Quite
obviously the government is NOT doing a good job in either resourcing or
managing the NSW national parks estate.
What is
very clear to many members of the community who are concerned about protection
of the natural environment is that the current NSW government has no
understanding about how crucial a healthy natural environment is to the
well-being of both humans and other life forms.
The natural environment (of which
national parks are a very important part) provides important services (such as clean air
and clean water) on which we all rely. It is time that the Berejiklian
Government and our local member, Chris Gulaptis, woke up to this and abandoned
this re-structure.
- Leonie Blain
This article was originally published in the VOICES FOR THE EARTH column in The Daily Examiner on October 23rd , 2017.
