Latest news with #JohnBarilaro
The Age
05-08-2025
- Politics
- The Age
How Barilaro's Brumby Bill of 2018 is coming back to divide the NSW Coalition
A bill to repeal protections for the thousands of remaining wild horses in Kosciuszko National Park introduced by former deputy premier John Barilaro in 2018 is driving a wedge between the Coalition as Liberal MPs indicate they will support the effort despite opposition from the Nationals. Liberal backbenchers Aileen McDonald and Robert Dwyer said they were inclined to support the bill while former treasurer Matt Kean and former planning minister Rob Stokes both urged the party to repeal the legislation. Kean went as far as saying the Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Act, also known as the Brumby Bill, was a 'mistake of potentially historic proportions'. Introduced by Barilaro in 2018 to recognise the cultural significance of brumbies in the south-west NSW national park, the bill mandated protecting a 'heritage herd' of feral horses but sparked uproar because of the environmental damage the introduced species caused. Provisions within the bill that prohibited culling, including aerial shooting, meant the population of brumbies rocketed until amendments in 2023 allowed lethal means. The number of horses dropped to between 1579 and 5717, according to a government survey in May. Wagga Wagga independent MP Joe McGirr's Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Repeal Bill 2025 was due to be debated in parliament this week but will probably be delayed. The Coalition's shadow cabinet has not yet considered the bill, and neither have either of the parties' caucuses. In May, a petition with 11,000 signatures calling for the repeal of the Brumby Bill was debated in parliament. In an email obtained by the Herald, Dwyer's electorate office says the recently elected Liberal MP has informed Opposition Leader Mark Speakman he would support McGirr's repeal bill.
Sydney Morning Herald
05-08-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
How Barilaro's Brumby Bill of 2018 is coming back to divide the NSW Coalition
A bill to repeal protections for the thousands of remaining wild horses in Kosciuszko National Park introduced by former deputy premier John Barilaro in 2018 is driving a wedge between the Coalition as Liberal MPs indicate they will support the effort despite opposition from the Nationals. Liberal backbenchers Aileen McDonald and Robert Dwyer said they were inclined to support the bill while former treasurer Matt Kean and former planning minister Rob Stokes both urged the party to repeal the legislation. Kean went as far as saying the Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Act, also known as the Brumby Bill, was a 'mistake of potentially historic proportions'. Introduced by Barilaro in 2018 to recognise the cultural significance of brumbies in the south-west NSW national park, the bill mandated protecting a 'heritage herd' of feral horses but sparked uproar because of the environmental damage the introduced species caused. Provisions within the bill that prohibited culling, including aerial shooting, meant the population of brumbies rocketed until amendments in 2023 allowed lethal means. The number of horses dropped to between 1579 and 5717, according to a government survey in May. Wagga Wagga independent MP Joe McGirr's Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Repeal Bill 2025 was due to be debated in parliament this week but will probably be delayed. The Coalition's shadow cabinet has not yet considered the bill, and neither have either of the parties' caucuses. In May, a petition with 11,000 signatures calling for the repeal of the Brumby Bill was debated in parliament. In an email obtained by the Herald, Dwyer's electorate office says the recently elected Liberal MP has informed Opposition Leader Mark Speakman he would support McGirr's repeal bill.
The Age
28-07-2025
- Politics
- The Age
‘Perverse outcomes': NSW a deforestation hotspot on par with Indonesia
Land-clearing in NSW surged by 40 per cent in 2023, making NSW a deforestation hotspot on par with Indonesia, as environmentalists slam the Minns government for failing to ditch rules driven by former Nationals leader John Barilaro after more than two years in government. The figures from the annual NSW Statewide Landcover and Tree Study (SLATS) released on Monday reveal 66,498 hectares of the state's native vegetation were destroyed in 2023 – the equivalent of 237 Sydney CBDs or four times the size of Royal National Park – and more than half was unallocated to any law. The figure is a 40 per cent rise from the revised figure of 47,388 hectares cleared in 2022. The clearing of woody vegetation (trees and shrubs) jumped from 21,137 hectares in 2022 to 32,847 hectares in 2023. Australian Conservation Foundation campaigner Nathaniel Pelle said this was 'on par with the amount of forest that is cleared every year for palm oil in Indonesia' – about 30,000 hectares in 2023. 'It's a lot ... for a rich country to be still clearing [more than] 30,000 hectares of forest and woodland in a year, and for that clearing rate to be going up,' said Pelle. The SLATS data also revealed 33,651 hectares of non-woody vegetation (grasslands, ferns and ground cover) was cleared, up from 26,251 hectares the previous year. Pelle said the surge in 2023 was probably 'panic clearing' ahead of anticipated legal reforms, since Labor came to power promising to fix land-clearing laws that had been loosened by the former Coalition government in 2016. 'If you telegraph that you're going to do something, and then don't, it can have perverse outcomes,' Pelle said. 'We need more than just words from the Minns government on reforming these rules and their enforcement or compliance.' In late 2024, the government overhauled the 2016 Biodiversity Offset Scheme, which allows developers to pay to destroy biodiversity, acting on a scathing review by former Treasury Secretary Ken Henry. The government also promised to reform the Local Land Services Act, which governs clearing on private land, but its proposed legislation remains in consultation stage.
Sydney Morning Herald
28-07-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘Perverse outcomes': NSW a deforestation hotspot on par with Indonesia
Land-clearing in NSW surged by 40 per cent in 2023, making NSW a deforestation hotspot on par with Indonesia, as environmentalists slam the Minns government for failing to ditch rules driven by former Nationals leader John Barilaro after more than two years in government. The figures from the annual NSW Statewide Landcover and Tree Study (SLATS) released on Monday reveal 66,498 hectares of the state's native vegetation were destroyed in 2023 – the equivalent of 237 Sydney CBDs or four times the size of Royal National Park – and more than half was unallocated to any law. The figure is a 40 per cent rise from the revised figure of 47,388 hectares cleared in 2022. The clearing of woody vegetation (trees and shrubs) jumped from 21,137 hectares in 2022 to 32,847 hectares in 2023. Australian Conservation Foundation campaigner Nathaniel Pelle said this was 'on par with the amount of forest that is cleared every year for palm oil in Indonesia' – about 30,000 hectares in 2023. 'It's a lot ... for a rich country to be still clearing [more than] 30,000 hectares of forest and woodland in a year, and for that clearing rate to be going up,' said Pelle. The SLATS data also revealed 33,651 hectares of non-woody vegetation (grasslands, ferns and ground cover) was cleared, up from 26,251 hectares the previous year. Pelle said the surge in 2023 was probably 'panic clearing' ahead of anticipated legal reforms, since Labor came to power promising to fix land-clearing laws that had been loosened by the former Coalition government in 2016. 'If you telegraph that you're going to do something, and then don't, it can have perverse outcomes,' Pelle said. 'We need more than just words from the Minns government on reforming these rules and their enforcement or compliance.' In late 2024, the government overhauled the 2016 Biodiversity Offset Scheme, which allows developers to pay to destroy biodiversity, acting on a scathing review by former Treasury Secretary Ken Henry. The government also promised to reform the Local Land Services Act, which governs clearing on private land, but its proposed legislation remains in consultation stage.
