John Barilaro wants to remove protection by either de-gazetting the entire park or reducing its size

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The NSW deputy premier has vowed to introduce legislation to open up a national park in the state’s Riverina region to logging.

John Barilaro wants to remove protection of the 42,000 hectare Murray Valley national park by either de-gazetting the entire park or reducing its size.

Barilaro told the National party’s recent state conference a bill would be reintroduced to the parliament after the winter recess.

Whether it takes the form of a private member’s bill or government bill will depend on there being broader Coalition support for reversing the listing of the park. Such a move would be a first for New South Wales and is fiercely opposed by environment groups.

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The conservation area is known for its river red gum forests and is home to several threatened species and a Ramsar-listed wetland.

For it to be a government bill it would also have to go to cabinet, and it is not currently on the cabinet agenda.

Barilaro told Guardian Australia he was prepared to have a debate within the Coalition about the park’s status.

“The river red gums industry was wiped out by the stroke of a pen by [former Labor leader] Nathan Rees in his dying days as premier,” he said.

“If the only way to return this industry to its former owners and employees is to carve out that part of the national park, then that is what we should do.

“I expect many Liberals will support this move but there will be many who do not – everyone is entitled to their views.

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“But I will not sit by and see an industry, so unfairly dealt with, lose their livelihoods forever just because we need to avoid a public debate with our partners.”

When the park was established in 2010, taxpayers paid $97m to the timber industry as part of an industry readjustment package.

Last year, the former member for Murray Austin Evans introduced a private member’s bill that proposed reversing the listing of the park. At the time, Evans was under pressure in his seat over the future of the logging industry.

The bill did not make it to a vote before the NSW election in March this year and Evans lost his seat to the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party.

Barilaro said the National party would reintroduce a bill after the winter recess and “do what we were elected to do – to make our case and convince the parliament that this should be supported”.

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The National Parks Association of NSW wrote to the environment minister, Matt Kean, this week, urging him to rule out government support.

The association’s senior ecologist, Oisin Sweeney, said “we strongly hope that this doesn’t represent a shift in government policy”.

“It’s an absolutely monumental shift away from a bipartisan approach to protected areas, and keeping them protected,” he said.

“The whole point of gazetting national parks is so the public can have confidence that these areas are protected in perpetuity for their conservation and social values.”

Sweeney also asked, if such a move was supported, whether the $97m paid by NSW taxpayers would be recouped.

Kate Smolski, the chief executive of the Nature Conservation Council of NSW, said stripping protections from the park would be “a gross act of environmental vandalism”.

“These magnificent forests are protected because they are struggling after decades of logging and grazing, impacts that are being multiplied by climate change, water diversions and drought,” she said.

“This government has the worst record for creating national parks in the past 50 years but stripping protections from the river red gums national park would be an unprecedented low.”

Guardian Australia sought comment from Kean but he was unavailable before publication deadline.

