Letter to the Editor: Time to transition timber workers

DEAR News Of The Area,

I WOULD like to make a few points with reference to MP Michael Kemp’s response to a letter delivered to his office on Wednesday 23 July by KoaLa Man (Peter Elzer).

The event was reported in the Macleay Argus (online Friday, 25 July and in print Saturday, 2 August).

On one level Mr Kemp’s response seems more conciliatory than in his previous contributions to the topic.

Here he advocates for the coexistence of a healthy koala population and a healthy timber industry which on the face of it seems a reasonable proposition.

But in referring to koala counts he implies that there are plenty of koalas left, therefore a healthy population therefore no problem.

But this does not take account of the fact that every day more areas are being logged that are earmarked for the Great Koala National Park (GKNP), potentially qualifying for World Heritage listing.

As explained in my previous Letter to the Editor (1 August 2025), koalas need large tracts of connected forests to avoid a reduced gene pool which is a precursor to extinction.

Even more incredulously, Mr Kemp states: “There was no evidence that regulated timber harvesting harmed koala numbers”.

Does this include the clear-felling of plantation timber which koalas also occupy as they can’t read maps?

It has been proven that clear felling kills koalas.

As for the logging industry, it doesn’t look too healthy either, as evidenced by the huge tax-payer funded losses NSWFC has been running since 2020.

If Mr Kemp really cares about the logging industry, perhaps he should look at the writing on the wall.

Sooner or later the industry will follow the path of SA and WA and be closed down for economic, environmental and social licence reasons.

If Mr Kemp really cares, he would be working on a transition plan for the workers and supporting the development of alternative industries which are producing building materials such as manufactured wood, bamboo, hempcrete and sucrete.

Although Australia is known as a species extinction hotspot, it is not too late for a world heritage national koala park to be established.

The tourist dollars and therefore jobs from this alone would be significant.

Mr Kemp refers to the ‘informed discussion’ about the GKNP at the annual conference of the NSW Farmers Association where they unanimously passed a motion opposing its creation.

I wonder if they were informed about the multiple functions of the forest, not least as a carbon sink in mitigating climate change but also about their crucial role as part of the water cycle, recycling rainfall back into the atmosphere (cooling the land in the process), storing water and releasing surplus water into streams.

Thus they increase baseflows in dry periods and reduce peak flows and flooding in rainfall events.

If Mr Kemp really cares about farmers, he would be educating them about these and other services forests provide which are of direct relevance to their interests in this era of more frequent extreme weather events.

Unfortunately Mr Kemp MP seems to prefer playing politics.

Yours sincerely,
Dr Nona HARVEY,
West Kempsey.