The recent shocking injuries and subsequent death of a koala near Dingo Tops forest as a result of logging highlight a dreadful situation that continues to be approved and supported by the NSW Minns Government.
Koalas In Care reported that the koala’s injuries included bruising to the chin and scrotum, fractures to his radius and ulna, a ruptured liver, and a haemorrhage in his lungs.
This is the grim reality of the Minns Government's absolute failure to protect an endangered species hurtling towards extinction. Logging continues in the proposed Great Koala National Park, in compartments with known koala populations.
The badly injured koala’s death was described as “collateral damage”. No one knows the level of mortality and injury koalas and other wildlife are suffering as giant industrial machines tear down their habitats in the state’s native forests.
The public cannot take legal action against Forestry Corporation. The state-owned corporation has a legal defence over any killing or injury under the Biodiversity Conservation Act, the Protection of the Environment Operations Act and the State Owned Corporations Act.
The RSPCA deals with domestic cruelty. There are no inspectors in the logging compartments to ensure that koalas and other forest fauna are not injured or killed.
Under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, the objectives of the legislation include preventing cruelty to animals, treating animals in a humane manner and ensuring the welfare of animals. It is an offence to commit acts of intentional cruelty and harm.
Aggravated cruelty may result in imprisonment for two years, 1,000 penalty units or both.
A double standard is operating in NSW. Harming, injuring and killing forest fauna during the logging of native forests has no prevention of cruelty obligations. The Coastal Integrated Forest Operations Approval (CIFOA) approves logging operations but doesn’t deal with cruelty.
So it’s not okay to harm a domestic animal in NSW but it’s okay to maim, injure and deprive koalas and forest fauna of food, shelter and protection.
Local communities in harvest zones are fighting tooth and nail to protect the forests; elderly women are chaining themselves to bulldozers. People are camping out for days on end, trying desperately to prevent more loss of wildlife.
The Government’s response?
The Canberra Times reports Forestry Corporation plans to develop a new squad focused on protestors. Advertisements for a four-person compliance team to manage and plan for protest activity ‘potentially including liaison with police’ are being prepared.
The report continues:
‘Other key tasks include collecting evidence, issuing penalty notices if protesters enter closed forests or disrupt harvesting and “initiating prosecution if warranted”, as well as developing an enforcement strategy for Forestry Act offences.’
According to the article, a spokesperson for NSW Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty, responsible for forestry, said:
“From time to time when individuals may breach the rules, it is important that government agencies and land managers can manage these situations.”
Not a word about the responsibilities of government to protect endangered forest fauna.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that Labor governments in NSW and at the federal level are deeply anti-environment. The failure of Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to fulfil her promise to bring in new federal legislation to protect endangered species is another nail in the wildlife coffin.
In yet another horrific example of acts of cruelty approved by the Minns Government, hundreds of brumbies are being shot from helicopters in a closed-off area in Kosciuszko National Park. The purpose of this “aerial cull” is to provide protection for vulnerable native species.
The shooting is an issue that has created massive controversy.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that it took an average of 7.5 shots per horse.
As the writer of this article, I have witnessed first-hand helicopter shooting of brumbies and water buffalo in the Northern Territory and Queensland. Horses are terrified by the helicopters, stampeding to get away from the noise.
Foals fall over, some break their legs. Pregnant mares are shot without mercy, many horses are injured as a clean shot is almost impossible from the air.
Many environmental organisations see opposition to the brumby slaughter as a red flag, insisting that it’s better to “kill the horses” to save the native species impacted.
There’s no middle ground. If brumbies have to be killed, the only humane way is to shoot at ground level. The combination of noisy low-flying helicopters with shots being fired as terrified horses try to get away is a recipe for significant animal cruelty. Whilst birth control has been dismissed, there’s an urgent need to find a humane way to deal with the horses.
The RSPCA’s response can only be described as weak.
With so much angst, anger and concern over the killing, any independent acceptable estimates of the real numbers of brumbies are in the too-hard basket.
NSW Minister for the Environment Penny Sharpe apparently gave approval for the slaughter and closed off the park, ensuring the killing would have no witnesses.
What do these examples of dreadful, unacceptable cruelty to animals with no legal recourse say about the Minns Government?
Albert Einstein, the Nobel Prize winner regarded as the father of modern physics and the most influential physicist of the 20th Century, was a strong believer in the rights of animals:
If a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals.
Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
No doubt Einstein would be rolling in his grave witnessing the atrocities the Minns’ Government is permitting.
Sue Arnold is an IA columnist and freelance investigative journalist. You can follow Sue on Twitter @koalacrisis.
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