GREENS politician Amanda Cohn has expressed frustration at the NSW government not moving rapidly enough to protect koalas, a creature expected to be extinct in the state by 2050.
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Speaking at a rally in Albury's QEII Square on Saturday, the Upper House MP was critical of the Labor government not yet fulfilling an election promise to create the Great Koala National Park in northern NSW between Coffs Harbour and Kempsey.
"They still say they will gazette the Great Koala National Park, but in the meantime it continues to be logged and we have debated this in the NSW Parliament and the Labor government has committed to continue logging the area that's meant to be the Great Koala National Park," Dr Cohn said.
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"It's not going to protect koalas if we gazette it once there's no trees left.
"A majority of cross benchers in both houses of parliament support stopping forest logging in that area of NSW right now while the complicated process of gazettal happens.
"We are literally just waiting on (Environment Minister) Penny Sharpe and the Labor Party to keep their own election promise and stop that logging."
Dr Cohn was addressing a Rally for Forests which was part of a nationwide series of events organised by the Bob Brown Foundation to push for the immediate end of native forest logging across Australia.
The other speaker, event co-organiser Rachel Buchan noted Victoria had decided to ban native forest logging but questioned its timing.
"Victoria, hats off to them, have declared they will end native forest logging of state forests, but not until 2030," Ms Buchan said.
"That is a long time hence and at the rate at which they are going, how much will be left?"
Ms Buchan said plantations, such as those around Myrtleford, failed to aid the environment sufficiently.
"A lot of those trees are actually very short term, so the cycle is only 10 to 20 years and that's not long enough for those trees to draw down the same amount of carbon that the trees they're replacing stored," Ms Buchan said.
The rally drew 40 to 50 people, with those in attendance invited to send premade postcards to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese urging him to protect native forests.
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