Mid North Coast forests fell at the hands of Forests Corp which Leslie Williams so staunchly defends

Leslie Williams has received a golden bulldozer award for displaying utter disregard for the crisis in native forest logging in this electorate. Her National Party line is to turn a blind eye to reality and chant the mantra that industrial logging of native forests is done sustainably.  

In 2011 a community group tried to provide her with aerial footage of Mid North Coast forests being clear felled and Forest Corp workers warning that unsustainable logging rotations were killing regrowth. 

She waved it away contemptuously saying “I don’t want that. I already know about that film.’  Instead of going out and seeing what the forest workers, scientists and environmentalists were warning about, Leslie pretended concern for koalas by ensuring  she was constantly photographed beside polluting fibreglass koala sculptures.

Meanwhile in the real world, Mid North Coast forests fell at the hands of Forests Corp which Leslie so staunchly defends.  76,000 ha of native forests were clear felled of which 23,000 hectares was high value koala habitat.

Friday’s protest and ‘award’ ceremony raised the issue of a new ‘no rules’ logging regulatory system the NSW government is bringing in, the IFOA ‘remake’, condemned by scientists and all environment groups across the state. 

About 80% of NSW’s native forests have been exported wholesale for over the last 15 years – to China or Japan.  For over 7 years trees from our local native forests have been transported to a coal fired power station at Vales Point where energy companies get taxpayer subsidies for burning them with coal and calling it renewable energy.  

That is the National Party policy Leslie Williams won’t talk about when she parrots the inane party line about environment and economic balance.  

Francis Pike, 

Camden Head
https://www.portnews.com.au/story/5496583/letter-mps-party-line-over-forests/?cs=259